LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



ChapSlV Copyright i\o.XG2. 

- Shell' :... 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



A CHURCH HISTORY 



A 

CHURCH HISTORY 



OF THE 



First Seven Centuries 



TO THE CLOSE OF THE 



SIXTH GENERAL COUNCIL 

BY 

MILO MAHAN, D.D. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

THOMAS RICHEY, M.A., D.D. 

s. mark's-in-the-bowerie professor of ecclesiastical history 

IN THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK 



FIFTH EDITION 



NEW YORK 

E. h J. B. YOUNG & CO. 

7 and 9 West i8th Street 



f 



G9847 



Liorw jf of Cong 

NOV 2 1900 

SECOND COPY. 
OftOE* DIVISION, 

N OV 20 1900 



^ <> 
^ ^ 






<K 



O 



X) 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

MRS. MARY G. MAHAN, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Copyright, 1900, by 
E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE FIFTH 
EDITION 



It is with much pleasure I respond to the request of the 
publishers to introduce to the public a popular edition of 
Dr. Mahan's History of the first seven Centuries of the 
Christian Church. The book when first issued from the 
press, some thirty years ago, was welcomed in England as a 
much-needed addition to our Church Literature. It has for 
twenty years been my own text-book in the General Theo- 
logical Seminary ; I have never been able to find any work 
of a like kind to take its place. The intelligent lay reader, 
as well as the candidate for Holy Orders, will find here a 
well-written and profound discussion of the subject with 
which it deals. There are passages which for charm and 
felicity of expression are not to be surpassed in the English 
tongue, while the interest of the thoughtful reader is sus- 
tained throughout. 

THOMAS RICHEY, 



Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the General 
Theological Seminary, New York. 



October 3, 1900. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



The following History is intended chiefly for the use of the 
general reader ; with a view to whom, results are given rather 
than learned disquisitions, and the references are made as far as 
possible to authorities easily accessible. 

It is hoped that it will also be found a help to young 
students and candidates for Holy Orders. In the case of such, 
however, it is taken for granted that Eusebius is close at hand ; 
and at least one good text -book such as Gieseler's Church 
History, which, especially as arranged in Smith's American 
Edition, is invaluable for its exact and copious citations, and 
for its excellent bibliographical apparatus. Its principal defect 
is one incidental to all text-books ; namely, that it anatomizes 
the body of Church History to the prejudice of its life, — giving 
an aggregation of facts nicely arranged and labelled, instead 
of that living flow of events in their natural order by which 
(according to the maxim, sofoitur ambulandd) history explains 
and justifies itself. It is hoped that the present volume, by 
following as , far as possible the narrative form, and by dis- 
tinguishing the development of Church life in individuals, in 
Schools, and finally in the great Provincial Churches, will 
help to supply this deficiency, and facilitate the profoundly 
interesting and comprehensive study to which it is offered as 
an humble contribution. 



viii Preface, 

The author's obligations to the innumerable laborers who 
have preceded him in this field it would be only tedious to 
express. As Dr. Schaff, however, is one of the most recent 
among these, and is sometimes referred to in this volume with 
expressions of dissent from his opinions, it seems but just to 
bear witness to the high merits of his two admirable and 
learned works, as presenting some of the best results of modern 
German criticism in a form quite intelligible to the English 
reader. 

To those who understand what Church History is, no apol- 
ogy is needed for a new work on the subject. The narrative 
of the three years of the Ministry of our Lord required four 
men, four minds, and four different points of view to do justice 
to it, though written under the guidance of an infallible Inspi- 
ration. Much more is there room for many men, many minds, 
and many different points of view, in a subject which covers 
all time, and in dealing with which no sort of infallibility 
can be decently laid claim to. No one book can pretend to 
be a History in the full sense of the word. The best effort, 
like the worst, is merely a History according to this man or 
that, according to one bias or another ; — as a general rule, 
the worst bias being that which makes the loudest professions 
of being free from bias. The following work claims nothing 
on that score. It is written, however, according to the best 
judgment and best intentions of the author, with a sincere 
effort to state facts as they have come down to us from anti- 
quity ; and as such is commended to the kind indulgence of 
the charitable reader. 

General Theological Seminary, 
New York, April 5, 1800. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

N.B. — The Bishops of Rome Italics ; of Jerusalem (J) ; of Alexandria (A) ; 
of Antioch (An) ; Martyrs are distinguished by a f . 



EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. 


AD. 


AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 


Tiberius. 33 S. Stephen.-j- 


30 


33 Church in Jerusalem. 


35 James (J). 




Persecution — Dispersion . 
Gospel preached in Samaria, 


37 Caligula. 




Csesarea, Cyprus, Phenice. 


The Twelve in 




(Simon Magus.) 


41 Claudius. Palestine. 


40 


44 Herod Agrippa dies. 

45 Church in Antioch. 


45 S. James the 




46 Claudius expels the Jews 


Greater, f 




from Rome. 


Barnabas, 


50 


50 Council in Jerusalem. 


54 Nero. Paul, 




Church Centres established in 


Silas, and others. 




Alexandria, Corinth, Ephesus, 


Linus. 62 S. James the Just.f 




Rome — (Judaizing teachers 


Cletus. 63 Symeon (J). 


60 


and Gnostics in Asia Minor, 


Clemens. S. Peter,f Anianus (A) , 




Parties in Corinth, etc.) 


and S. PauLf 




64 First Persecution. 


Euodius, \ / a \ 
68 Galba. Ignatius, J ^ '" 






69 Otho. 






69 Vitellius. 


70 


Destruction of Jerusalem. 


69 Vespasian. 






71 S. Thomas. f 




Seven Churches of Asia, each 


73 S. Bartholomew.! 




with its Angel or Bishop. 


79 Titus. 


80 




81 Domitian. 




(Nicolaitans, Docetse, Cerinthus, 


85 A villus (A). 




Menander.) 


Anacletus ? . '. , 
Evaristus? ^ " '" 


90 


Second Persecution. 


98 Nerva. 98 Cerdo (A). 




Nerva forbids accusations of 


99 Trajan. |eW nt }f 




slaves against their masters. 


100 


Edict against secret societies. 


Justus (J). 






S. Poly carp fl. 


no 


Third Persecution. 


117 S. Ignatius. f 




Correspondence between Pliny 


117 Hadrian. 




and Trajan. 


119 Alexander. Ammias. 




Insurrections of the Jews in 


Quadratus. 


120 


Egypt and Cyrene. 


Aristides. 






Papias. 




Fourth Persecution. 


130 Sixtus I. 




Bar Cochba's Insurrection. 


135 Marcus (J). 


130 


135 ^Elia Capitolina. 


138 Antoninus Justin M. fl. 


140 


(Gnostic Sects and Schools.) 


Pius. 




(Basilides, Valentinus, Marcion.) | 


140 Telesphorus. Hegesippus fl. 


150 


(Montanus.) | 



Chronological Table. 



1 EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS. ETC. 


A.D. 


AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 


152 Hyginus. pim ? 


150 


(Paschal Controvei-sy.) 


154 Anicetus. 




Polycarp confers with Anicetus. 


Athenagoras. 


160 




161 Marcus Melito of Sardis. 




Fifth Persecution. 


Aurelius. Apollinaris. 




Synods respecting Easter and 


1 173 Soter. 




Montanism. 


' S. Polycarp.-j- 


170 


The Thundering Legion. 


S. Pothinus.f 




(Tatian, Bardesanes.) 


177 Eletithe- Dionysius of 




Persecutions at Lyons and 


rus. Corinth fl. 




Vienne. Preachers sent to 


1 180 Commodus. 


180 


Britain. Commodus favors 


'" Irenaeus fl. 




the Christians. 


1 Theophilus (An). 






189 Demetrius (A). 






Pantsenus fl. 




Pantaenus goes to India. 


192 Victor. Apollonius.f 


190 




j 192 Helvius Per- 




(Victor excommunicates the 


tinax. Clemens fl. 




Asiatic Churches.) 


11 193 Didius 195 Narcissus (J). 




Several Synods holden. 


\, Julianus. 




197 Jews and Samaritans rebel 


" r 194 Septimius Tertullian fl. 


200 


and are subdued. 


j Severus. 202 S. Irenaeus.f 






' 197 Zephyrinus. Origen fl. 






Minucius 




202 Sixth Persecution. 


Felix fl. 




Libelli pads. 


(211 Caracalla. 


210 




h 212 Alexander (J). 




(Patripassian and Monarchian 


217 Callistus. 




Heretics.) 


Hippolytus fl. 






217 Macrinus. 




Ulpian the lawyer collects all 


219 Heliogabalus. 


220 


the edicts against Christians, 


222 Urbanus Julius Afri- 




and incites to persecution in 


, canus fl. 




Rome. 


222 Alexander 




(Sabellius fl.) 

(New Platonic School, Ploti- 


Severus. 


230 


230 Pontianus. 




nus.) 


235 Anterus. 






236 Fabianus. 






235 Maximinus 




235 Seventh Persecution. 


Thrax. Babylas (An). 




Synod of Iconium. 


237 Gordianus. Firmilianus fl. 


240 




' 238 Pupienus. 




(Origen converts Beryllus.) 


Balbinus. 






244 Philippus Arabs. 




Church in Numidia and Mauri- 
tania. 


249 Decius. Fabianus.j- 


250 


249 Eighth Persecution. 


Trajanus. Cyprian fl. 




Development of Discipline. 


251 Cornelius. ,f Greg. Thau- 




War, Pestilence, Famine. 


mat. 




. 



Chronological Table. 



XI 



EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. 


A.D. 


AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 


252 Lucius.^ Dionysius (A). 
252 Gallus and Volusianus. 


252 


Goths overrun Asia Minor and 


253 Stephen.^ (Novatianus.) 




Greece — Christian captives 


254 Valerianus. 257 Cyprian. f 
257 Sixtus If.f 
259 Gallienus. (Nepos.) 
259 Dionysius. 


260 


preach the Gospel. 
(Baptismal Controversy.) 

257 Ninth Persecution. 
Valerian taken prisoner by the 

Persians. 


268 Claudius II. 

269 Felix. Paul, \ f a \ 

270 Aurelian. Domnus, J ^ '' 


270 


(Sabellian Controversy in Pen- 

tapolis.) 
(Three Councils of Antioch 




— Paul condemned.) 


275 Tacitus. S. Antony. 




Edict of Persecution — Aurelian 


275 Etity chianus . 

276 Florianus Methodius of 

Probus. Tyre. 


280 


slain. 
Porphyry writes against the 
Christians. 


282 Carus. 






283 Caius. Lucian the M. 




: 


284 Diocletian. 

(Era of the Martyrs.) 

Pamphilus of Csesarea. 
287 D. and Maximian. 


29O 


Peace and prosperity of the 
Church. Splendor of 
Church buildings. 


294 (Constantius 

and Galerius.) 
296 Marcellinus. Eusebius the 


300 


Hierocles opposes Christianity. 
303 Edict of Persecution — de- 


Ch. Hist'n. 




struction of the Churches. 


(Meletius.) 
308 Marcellus. (Arius.) 
308 Maximin. 

Caecilianus. 




Tenth Persecution. 




305 (Council of Elvira.) 
309 Martyrs of Palestine. 


310 Eusebius. (Donatus.) 


3IO 


311 Death of Galerius and 


Melchiades. Peter (A).f 




Edict of toleration. 


314 Sylvester. 

Alexander (A). 
Hosius. 

— 


320 


312 Victoiy of Constantine. 

(Donatist troubles.) 

313 Victory of Licinius. 
Edicts of restitution. 



Xll 



Chronological Table. 



EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. 


A.D. 


AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 


Lactantius fl. 


320 


318-320 Arius proclaims his 

Heresy. 
321 Arius condemned in Alex- 


323 Constantine sole 




andria. 


Emperor. 




325 Council of Nic^ea {\st 
General}. 


326 S. Athanasius, 




326 Death of Crispus and 


Bp. of Alexan- 




Fausta. 


andria. 




S. Helena's Pilgrimage. 


Juvencus fl. 


330 


New Rome dedicated. 
331 Arius recalled. 

Schism in Antioch. 
335 Councils of Tyre and Jeru- 
salem. 


336 Mark. 




336 First expulsion of Athana- 


Maximus (J). 




sius. 


337 Julius. 




Sudden death of Arius. 


337 Constantine II. \ 




337 Division of the Empire. 


Constans. \ 






Constantius. J 






• 


340 


Death of Constantine II. 
341 Second expulsion of Atha- 
nasius. 
Monachism appears in the 

West. 
Council of the Dominicwn 
Aureum. 


S. Cyril, Bp. of 




345 Revolt of the Donatists. 


Jerusalem, fl. 




347 Council of Sardica. 
349 Restoration of Athana- 
sius. 
Donatists subdued. 


S. Hilary, Bp. of 


350 


Murder of Constans. 


Poitiers. 




351 Council of Sirmium. 
Persecution renewed. 


352 Liberius. 




353-355 Councils of Aries and 


353 Constantius sole 




Milan. 


Emperor. 




356 Third Expulsion of Atha- 
nasius. 

358 Council of Ancyra. 

359 Council of Seleucia. 
Council of Ariminum. 




360 


S. Basil's Monks in Pontus. 
Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths. 


361 Julian. 361 Meletius (An). 




361 Council of Antioch. 
Paganism restored by 
Julian. 



Chronological Table, 



Xlll 



EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. 


A.D. 


AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 


362 S. Dionysius, 
the Areopagite 
(so called). 


362 


362 Outbreak at Antioch. 
Council at Alexandria. 
Fourth expulsion of Atha- 
nasius. 


363 Jovian. 




363 Attempt to rebuild the 
Temple. 
Death of Julian. 


364 Valentinian I. \ 
Valens. / 
366 Damasus. 




Christianity restored. 
364 Final division of the 




Empire. 
General restoration of 


S. Jerome fl. 

368 S. Epiphanius fl. 

S. Optatus fl. 

S. Basil the Great, 


37o 


Orthodoxy. 
367 Valens, Arian persecutor. 

Fifih expulsion of Athanasius. 


Bp. of Csesarea 




Clergy restrained by law. 


in Cappadocia. 
S. Gregory, Nazianzen fl. 






S. Gregory Nyssen fl. 

S. Ephraim Syrus fl. 

Pacian fl. 






371 S. Martin, Bp. of 
Tours. 






Macarius fl. 




373 Athanasius dies. 


375 Gratian. 

Valentinian II. 
379 Theodosius. 

Philostorgius fl. 
Macrobius fl. 


380 


377-382 Gothic invasion. 
378 S. Gregory Nazianzen at 
Constantinople. 

381 First Council of Con- 
stantinople \2d Gen- 


384 Sirichts. Symmachus fl. 

385 Theophilus, 

Bp. (A). 


i 
1 


eral). 
383 Rome becomes Christian. 
Conference of Sects. 
Heresies forbidden. 


Idacius fl. 




385 Execution of Priscillianists. 


1 




385-6 Contest for the Basilicas 
at Milan. 


387 Gaudentius fl. 




387 The Serapeum destroyed. 

388 Theodosius sent out of the 






Chancel. 


Paulinus of Nola. 


390 


Sedition and Massacre at 


395 Arcadius. 




Thessalonica 


, Honorius. 

395 S. Augustine, 
Bp. of Hippo. 




39 1—4 Pagan religion prohibited. 

395 S. Symeon Stylites. 

396 Alaric invades Greece. 



XIV 



Chronological Table. 



EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. 


A.X>. 


AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 


398 Anastasius. S. Chrysostom, 


398 




Bp. of Con- 






stantinople. 


4C0 


Alaric invades Italy. 


401 Palladius. 






402 Innocent. 




404 Gladiators abolished at 
Rome. 


405 Prudentius fl. 




S. Chrysostom exiled. 
406 Defeat of Radagaisius. 


407 Theodosius II. 




407 Death of S. Chrysostom. 

408 Disgrace and death of 

Stilicho. 
Alaric's 1st siege of Rome. 

409 Alaric's 2d siege of Rome. 
Spain invaded by Van- 
dals, etc. 


Synesius fl. 


410 


Alaric's capture and sack of 

Rome. 
Alaric dies. 


412 S. Cyril (A). 




412 Peace with the Goths. 


S. Isidore of 




415 Quarrel with Orestes. 


Pelusium fl. 




Massacres in Alexandria. 


416 Orosius fl. 




, Murder of Hypatia. 


417 Zosimus. 






419 Boniface. 






Paulinus of Milan. 


42c 


Paganism extinguished. 


Euodius. 




, S. Jerome dies. 


422 Celestine. 423 Theodoret, 




| ( 


Bp. of Cyrus fl. 




1 


424 Cassian fl. 




1 


425 Valentinian III. 




, 


Philostorgius fl. 




' 429 Genseric invades Africa. 


428 Nestorius, Bp. (C). 




Hilary of Aries fl. 


43° 


i Siege of Hippo ; Death of 


TeLer Chrysologus fl. 




S. Augustine. 


Possidius fl. 




Roman Council condemns 


432 Sixtus III. S. Patrick in 




Nestorius. 


Ireland. 




The Twelve Anathemas. 


432 Sixtus 




1 431 Council of Ephesus (y/ 


Senensis fl. 




General). 


434 S. Vincent 




432 Cyril and John (An) rec- 


of Lerins fl. 




onciled. 


Proclus fl. 




Alienation general in the 


Sedulius fl. 




East. 


439 Socrates fl. 




435 Nestorius exiled. 


440 S. Leo the 


440 




Great. Sozomen fl. 




441 The Huns attack Eastern 


S. Salvian fl. 




Empire. 



Chronological Table. 



xv 



EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. 


A.D, 


AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 


444 S. Prosper of 


444 


448 


Council at Constantinople. 


Aquitain. 






Eutyches condemned. 


Dioscorus (A). 




449 


Descent of Saxons in 


447 Flavianus (C). 






Britain. / 
Latrocinmm, Robber / 


450 Marcian. 


45° 




Council. 


451 Proterius (A). 




45i 


Council of Chalcedon \ 

(4.I/1 General). 
Attila invades Gaul. 
Battle of Chalons. 






452 


Juvenal flees from Jerusa- 
lem. 

Attila invades Italy. 

Republic of Venice 
founded. 






453 


Attila dies. 






454 


^Etius murdered. 






455 


Rome sacked by Vandals. 


455 Maximus. 




455-582 Saxons masters of 


Avitus. 






Britain. 


457 Majorianus. 




457 


Proterius murdered. 


Leo. 






Pilgrimage of Eudocia. 


Arnobius fl. 


460 






461 Severus. Ruffinus fl. 








Hilary. 461 S. Remigius, 




461- 


-7 Ricimer in power. 


Bp. of Rheims. 








467 Simplicius. 








Anthemius. 


470 






472 Olybrius. Sidonius fl. 




472 


Sack of Rome. 


Julius Nepos. 






Death of Ricimer. 


474 Zeno. 








476 Augustulus. Aulus Gel- 








Odoacer. lius fl. 


480 










481 


Clovis, King of the Franks. 






482 


The Henoticon issued. 


483 Felix II, 


490 




(Thirty-five years' schism 
between East and West.) 


491 Anastasius. 








492 Gelasius. 




493 


Theodoric, King of Italy. 


494 S. Benedict fl. 








495 Gennadius fl. 








496 Anastasius II. 




496 


Conversion of Clovis. 


498 Symmachus. 








Csesarius of Aries fl. 


500 


Victory of Clovis. 



XVI 



Chronological Table, 



EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. 


A.D. 


1 

AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 


507 Fulgentius fl. 


5io 


Theodoric persecutes the 
Catholics. 

512 Trisagion riots in Con- 


514 Hormisdas. Cassiodorus fl. 




stantinople. 
514 First Religious War: 
Vitalian's rebellion. 


518 Justin I. Theodorus 




516 Authority of Chalcedon 


520 Justinian. Lector fl. 


520 


restored. 


523 John. 




524 Death of Boethius. 


526 Felix III. 




525 Death of Symmachus. 


527 Justinian, sole 






Emperor. Prccopius fl. 




527-33 Reform of Roman Law. 
529 Monte Cassino founded. 


530 Boniface II 


530 




532 John II 




532 Sedition of the Nika, in 
Constantinople. 


533 Dionysius 




533-4 Belisarius reconquers 


Exiguus fl. 




Africa. 


535 AgapetuE. Nicetiusfl. 




535 He subdues Sicily. 


536 Silverius. 




536 French monarchy estab- 
lished in Gaul. 


537 tigilius. 




537 The new S. Sophia dedi- 
cated. 
537-9 Belisarius recovers Italy. 


Facundus fl. 


540 


541 Jacob Baradai. 
543 S. Benedict dies. 

546 Rome taken by the Goths. 

547 Recovered by Belisarius. 

548 Recall of Belisarius. 

549 Rome retaken by the Goths. 
Origen's errors and the 

Three Chapters. 


550 Primasius fl. 


550 


552 Rome recovered by Narses. 


553 Liberatus fl. 




553 Second Council of Con- 

stantinople ($th Gen- 
eral) . 

554 Narses defeats the Franks, 


555 Pelagius. 




[etc. 
559 Last victory of Belisarius. 


560 John III 


560 




Venantius For- 




561 Disgrace and Death of 


tunatus fl. 




Belisarius. 



Chronological Table. 



XVil 



EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. 



565 Justin II. 



574 Benedict. 
578 Pelagins II. 
Tiberius II. 



579 Leander, Bp. 
of Seville. 

581 Gildas ft. 



582 Maurice. 



590 S. Gregory 

the Great. Leontius fl. 

594 Eyagrius ft. 

595 S. Isidore of 

Seville fl. 

597 S. Augustine of 

Canterbury. 

601 Hesychius fl. 

602 Phocas. Johannes Malala. 

604 Sabinian. 

607 Boniface III. 

608 Boniface IV. 
610 Heraclius. 
615 Deusdedit. 
619 Boniface V. 



625 Honorius. 



565 



570 



580 



590 



6co 



610 



620 



AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 



566 Invasion of Lombards and 

Avars. 

567 Disaffection and Death of 

Narses. 
56?-70 Great part of Italy con- 
quered by the Lombards. 

574 S. Emilian dies. 



Persecution by the Arian 

Leuvegild. 
589 King Recared brings Spain 
to Orthodoxy. 



595-602 Wars against the Avars. 
Evangelization of the Sax- 
ons in Kent. 
Conversion of the Lombards of 
Italy. 



619 Council of Seville anathe- 
matizes those who dis- 
turb or despoil Monas- 
teries. 

622-627 Victorious campaigns 
against the Persians. 

622 The Hejira. 

625 50,000 captives liberated. 

626 Persians and Avars repulsed 

from Constantinople. 

628 Peace with Persia; Chos- 

roes dead. 

629 The True Cross restored to 

the Holy Sepulchre. 
Several Provinces recov- 
ered. 



XV111 



Chronological Table. 



EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. 


A.D. 


AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 


Sophronius (J). 


630 


Edict affirming One Will in 

Christ. 
632 Death of Mohammed. 

The Provinces gained from 
the Persians lost to the 
Saracens. 

637 Saracens take Jerusalem. 

638 Saracens invade Egypt. 

639 The Ecthesis issued. 


640 Severianus. Eligius fl. 


640 




John IV. 




John IV. rejects the Ecthesis. 


641 Constantine III. 




641 Mutilation of Martina and 


Ileracleonas. 




Heracleonas. 


Constans II. 






642 Theodore. 




642 Pyrrhus of Constantinople 


645 Maximus, 




recants his heresy, but 


Monachus fl. 




recants his recantation. 
647 Saracens take Alexandria. 


'* 




648 The Typus issued. 


649 Martin I. 






S. Columbanus. 


650 




655 Eugenius I. 




Martin of Rome barbarously 


657 Vitalianus. S. Ildefonso, 




ill-treated. 


Abp. of Toledo. 


660 


Origin of the Paulicians. 


664 Theodore, Abp. 






of Canterbury. 






668 Constantine IV. 




668-675 Constantinople repeat- 


(Pogonatus.) 


670 


edly saved from the Sai-a- 
cens by the Greek fire. 


672 Adeodatics. 






673 Ven. Bede born. 






676 Donus. 




677 Peace, and Saracens pay 


678 Agatho. 




tribute. 


S. Boniface born. 


680 


Third Council of Constan- 
tinople (6th Genera/). 


682 Leo II. 




682 Monothelites exiled to 


684 Benedict II. 




Rome. 


685 John V. 




Leo II. repeats the anath- 


Justinian II. 




ema on Honorius. 


686 Conon. 




Strifes at the election of Popes. 


687 S erg his III. 


690 


691 Council in Trzdlo, or 






Quinisext Council. 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK I. 



CHAPTER 

I. — The Organization : — John the Baptist — Expectation of the Kingdom 
— The Kingdom preached in^ the Parables and in the Works of 
Jesus — Ministry organized — Prophetic, Priestly, Kingly — The Great 
Forty Days — The Ascension — The Waiting — Matthias Chosen. — 
\_A T otes. I. Nativity — 13. Miracles significant — 17. Kingly, Priestly, 
and Prophetic Ministry — 21. The Church and the Kingdom] 1-7 

II. — The Pentecostal Gift : — Number of Disciples — Assemblage of de- 
vout Jews — Descent of the Spirit — Judaic Foundation — In Palestine 
and in the World at large. \_Note. 2. Preparation] 7-10 

III. — The Twelve in Jerusalem : — Twelve years in Jerusalem — Pentecos- 
tal Society — Dissensions — Seven Deacons — James Apostle-Bishop 
— Persecutions — Second Pentecost — Dispersion — Gospel goes forth 
— S. Peter's Visitation — The other Apostles. [Notes. 4. James of 
Jerusalem — 5 . Presbyters] 10-17 

IV. — Churches of the Gentiles : — Gentiles admitted — Caesarea — Chris- 
tians in Antioch — Other Places — Barnabas and Saul sent forth — 
Elymas — Course of the two Apostles — Council at Jerusalem — 
Second Journey, Corinth — Third Journey, Ephesus — S. Paul in 
Jerusalem, Caesarea, Rome — Persecution under Nero. \_Notes. 1. 
Roman Jews — 2. Therapeutae — 4. Saul's Ordination] 17—27 

V. — S. Paul and his Company : — The Type of an enlarged Ministry — The 
Twelve Foundation-stones — The Seventy — S. Paul's peculiar Mis- 
sion — His Companions — Barnabas — Timothy, Titus, Luke, Mark — 



xx Contents. 



His Helpers and Successors. [Note. 4. Meaning of the numbers 
Twelve and Seventy] .....27-32 

—Mission of the Twelve :— The Twelve— S. James the Greater— 
S. Andrew and others — Causes of Persecution — Madness of the 
Jews and Heathen — Calamitous Times — The Jewish War — The 
Lord's Coming. [Note. 11. The Six great Judgments] 33~39 

VII.— Jewish Christian Church :— Jerusalem and Christian Israel- 
James the Just — His relations to S. Paul and to his own People — 
Spirit of Judaic Christianity — End of James — Signs of Judgment — 
Successors of James — Seeds of Heresy — Jerusalem taken — Chris- 
tians retire to Pella — Sects — Second Overthrow of the sacred City 

— ^Elia Capitolina. [Note. 13. The Door of Jesus] 39-46 

i 

VIII. — S. Peter and his Company : — S. Peter's position — His use of the 
Keys — Visits to Rome — Travels — His Gift and Influence — His 
Strength and Weakness — His Wife — S. Mark — S. Clement — Ques- 
tions of Church Order. [Notes. 1. Petros and Petra — 3. More 
than one Bishop in a City — 9. Peter's Wife] 47—51 

IX. — S. John : — S. John the Survivor of the Twelve — In Asia — Rome — 
Patmos — Ephesus — His Character and Gift — Traditions — His In- 
fluence anti-Gnostic — Gospel, Epistles, Revelation — Import of his 
later Life — A critical Period of Church History — Second General 
Persecution. [Notes. 5. John's Title of "the Elder"— 6. The 
Caldron of boiling Oil] 52—57 

X. — Holy Women : — The Mother of our Lord — Reserve of Holy Script- 
ure — Legends — Other Holy Women — S. Thecla and S. Domitilla. 
[Notes. 4. S. Mary not the Mother of James — 8. Virginity].. .5 7-60 

XI. — Church Government : — All Powers given to the Apostles as 
Brothers, Colleagues, Peers — Apostolic Aids or Fellows — Second 
Growth of the Apostolate — One College at first, then many — Local 
Ministry, Presbyters, Deacons, Deaconesses, with a Chief Pastor or 
Bishop — James an Apostle-Bishop — Charisms or Gifts — Relations 
of the Orders — Lay Influence — Legates of the Apostles — Their 
Successors — The Episcopate self-perpetuating — Three Witnesses — 
Metropolitan System. [Notes. 2. German Views of Episcopacy — 3. 
Apostles and Evangelists — 6. James a Bishop — 13. Parity — 14. 
The Charisms (Eph. iv. 12-16) — 17. S. Ignatius on the three 



Contents. xxi 

CHAPTER 

Orders — 18. Deacons — 20. Mutual Benedictions — 25. S. Jerome's 
Epistle ad Evangelui?i — 26. Threefold Episcopate] 60-76 

XII. — Doctrine and Heresies : — The Gospel, Christ come in the Flesh. 
— Three Drifts of Heresy — Three Types of Doctrine — Harmony of 
the Apostles — Scope of Doctrinal History — Four Heads — 1. Oral 
Teaching — 2. Rule of Faith. 3. Sacred Writings — 4. Heresies — 
— Gnostic — Doceta? — Simon Magus, Dositheus, Menander, Nico- 
laitans — Sensuous Heresies, Schisms — Judaic Heresies, Nazarenes, 
Cerinthus, Ebion — Error combated in first Principles — The Church 
admitting many stand-points — Truth in Love. [Notes. 5. The 
term "Development" — 9. The term " Rule of Faith" — 14. Alle- 
gorical Interpretation — 17. Meaning of Coloss. ii. 23 — 19. Anti- 
gnostic texts — 21. The term "Knowledge" in I C6r. viii. — 23. 
\ The Sedition in Corinth — 24. Antijudaic texts] 76-92 

XIII. — Rites, Observances, Morals : — In Ritual little Instruction needed — 
Baptism — Lord's Supper — Agape — Kiss of Peace — Laying on ot 
Hands — Unction — Public Worship — Liturgy — Hours of Prayer — 
Fasts and Feasts — Asceticism — Morals — Social Problems. \_Note. 
15. The Therapeutse opposed to slavery] 9 2 ~97 



BOOK II. 

I. — Beginning of Second Century : — Seed growing in secret— S. John 
and other Witnesses — Domitian, Nerva, Trajan — Third General 
Persecution — Trajan and Pliny — Martyrs — Simeon, Justus — Ignatius 
of Antioch — His Position, Witness, and Writings. [ Notes. 4. Pliny's 
Questions — 12. Zeal of Ignatius rational — 14. Unfair Censures of 
S.Ignatius — 15. " Nothing without the Bishop"] 101-110 

Hadrian and the Antonines : — Progress of the Gospel — Fanati- 
cism general — Hadrian in Athens — Quadratus and Aristides — Edict 
against Informers — Antoninus Pius — Marcus Aurelius — The Stoic 
Ideal — Three Types of the Age. [ Notes. I . Increase of the Chris- 
tians — 6. Number of Martyrs — 8. Hadrian's building of temples to 
the One God not improbable — 11. Piety of Aurelius] 111-118 

III. — S. Polycarp: — Church in Smyrna — Polycarp — Visit to Rome 
— The Amphitheatre — Polycarp called for — His Martyrdom — 



xxii Contents, 

-.HAPTER 

Honors paid him — His conservative Spirit. [Note. 8. The term 
" Atheists "] 1 19-125 

IV. — The Lyonnese Martyrs : — Gallic Church — Christians mobbed — A 
true Paraclete — Charity of the Sufierers — Ascetic Party — Sanctus, 
Maturus, Attilus, Pothinus, Blandina — The New Prophets con- 
demned. [Notes. 1. Foundations in Gaul. — 2. The Amphi- 
theatre] 125-131 

V. — Justin Martyr : — Justin in search of Truth — His Teachers — A 
Christian Philosopher — His Conversion — His Gifts, Opinions, Dis- 
cussions, Creed — His Companions in Martyrdom — His Disciples. — 
\_Notes. 5. The Logos — 6. Bread and Wine in the Mysteries of 
Mithras — 7. "Creation and Generation" — 8. Lenient Way of 
judging the Ebionites — 9. Baptism and the Eucharist] 131-139 

VI. — Apologetic Age : — End of the Century — Melito and other Apolo- 
gists — Heathen Opponents — New Platonic School — Apollonius of 
Tyana — End of the Aurelian Persecution — Commodus — Apollonius 
a Martyr — Septimius Severus — Sixth general Persecution — Seventh 
— Peace of thirty-eight years — Trials from within. \_Noies. 4. Plo- 
tinus — 5. Apollonius of Tyana — 6. Legio Fulminea — 7. Aurelius's 

Hatred of emotional Religion — 10. Evasions of Persecution] 

140-146 

VII. — Heresies and Schools : — The Church neither Jewish nor Gnostic 
— i. Judaic Sects — Clementina, Elxaites — ii. Gnosticism — General 
Account of it — iii. Gnostic Sects — Alexandrian — Syrian — Other 
Sects — iv. Manichseans — v. Sensuous Heresies — Sect Spirit — Spu- 
rious Writings — Chiliasm — Encratites — vi. Montanism — vii. Ration- 
alist Reaction — Alogi — Monarchians — Patripassians — Sabellius — 
Beryllus — Paul of Samosata — viii. Schools within the Church — 
Rome, Alexandria, Antioch. [Notes. 2. " Bishop of Bishops " — 6. 
Gnostic Terms, Dualism — 11. Communism — 17. Zoroaster — 22. Chi- 
liast Fathers — 29. Anti-encratite passages — 32. Truth the sanctifying 
Power — 35. Fasts — 36. Lay Priesthood — 50. Theological " Obstet- 
ricians" — 52. Scaffolding Theories — 54. Practical Sense of Tra- 
dition] 146-175 

VIII. — Heresies, how Met: — Heresies destroyed by Disintegration — Age of 
Dialectics — Exorcism fails against the Montanists — Reason appealed 



Contents. xxiii 

:hapter 

to — Wholesome Dread of Novelties — Scriptures studied — True 
Prophets and False — Synods — Their Necessity — Their conservative 
Influence — An Age judged by its own Trials. [Notes. 5. Apostolic 
Councils — 9. Whole Church present in Councils] 176-182 

IX. — S. Iren^eus and his Disciples: — S. Irenseus — His Character and 
Writings — Troubles in Rome — Blastus and Florinus — The Mar- 
cosians — Paschal Controversy — Irenseus counsels Peace — Church 
Growth and Miracles — Caius — Hippolytus — Parties in Rome. — 
[Notes. 13. Orthodoxy of Hippolytus — 14. The Callistians] 183-192 

A.. — The Alexandrine School : — Episcopate in Alexandria — Deme- 
trius — Centre of Learning — New Platonic School — Catechetical 
School — Pantsenus — Clemens — Origen — Martyrs — Labors and Writ- 
ings — Quarrel with Demetrius — Origen condemned — Heresy 
arrested — Influence of Origen — His Disciples and Friends. [Notes. 
5. Alexandrine Jews, Philo — 9. Athenagoras — 10. Three Works 
of Clement — 12. Clement's Orthodoxy — 16. Bodily Blemishes — 22. 
The threefold Sense — 28. Paradoxes of Origen — 29. Methodius]... 

192-206 



BOOK III. 

I.— North African Church : — North Africa — People, Morals, Relig- 
ion — Evangelized — Church established — Scillitan Martyrs — Sen- 
suous Bias — SS. Perpetua and Felicitas — Dreams, Visions — Mon- 
tanism — Tertullian — Questions of Veils, of Crowns — Party Names 
— Tertullianists — Influence of Tertullian — A Season of Peace and 
quiet Growth. [Notes. 3. Character of the Africans — 4. Phrase 
" sine charta," etc. — 7, Opposition to the Pray r er pro mora finis — 
9. Prayers for the Dead — 14. Converts among the wealthy Classes 
— 17. Tertullian's Paradoxes — 19. Absurd Sects] 209-223 

II. — Carthage and S. Cyprian : — Cyprian Bishop — State of the Church 
— Virgins, Confessors, Clergy — Abuses — Mission of S. Cyprian — 
Reform — Working Forces of the Church — Balance of Powers — 
Cyprian's Policy — Examples — Warnings of Judgment — Eighth gen- 
eral Persecution — Fabianus a Martyr — The Lapsed — Bad Conduct 
of the Confessors — Libelli Pacis — Novatus and his Party — Schism 
in Carthage — Novatian Schism in Rome — Discipline restored and 



xxiv Contents. 

CHAPTER 

everywhere established. [Notes. 2. Primates — 5. Antelucan Meet- 
ings offensive — 7 and 18. Tower of the Confessors — 13. Taylor's 
Early Christianity — 20. Mosheim's Treatment of S. Cyprian — 22. 
The Diptychs — 24. Visions — 25. Persecutions needed — 29. Eva- 
sions — 33. Exomologesis — 40. Evil connected with a numerous 
Episcopate — 43. Novatian — 44. Indulgences] 224-243 

III. — Decian Times : — A great Crisis — Early Belief of the Nearness of the 
Lord's Coming justified — Martyrs — Seven Sleepers — Gregory the 
Wonder-worker — Dionysius of Alexandria — Anchorites — Great 
Plague — Inroads of Barbarians — Christian Charity — Ninth Persecu- 
tion — Cornelius, Lucius, Origen, Stephen. [Note. 10. Orthodoxy 
of Gregoiy Thaumaturgus] 244-254 

IV. — Rome and the West : — Origin of the Roman Church — First Bish- 
ops — Eminent Position — Centre of Good and Evil — Resort of Here- 
tics — Zephyrinus and Callistus according to Hippolytus — Battle- 
Ground of two Elements — Question of the Day — Cyprian and 
Cornelius — Via media — Cyprian and Stephen — Baptismal Question 
— Case of Martialis and Basilides — of Marcianus — Valerian Perse- 
cution — Martyrdom of Stephen, Sixtus, Cyprian — Dionysius of 
Rome — Case of Dionysius of Alexandria — Question of Church 
property in Antioch referred to the Italian Bishops — Centralizing 
Tendency — State of the Roman Church in numbers, etc. — Triumph 
of the Cross — Donatist Schism — Its Influence upon the positioi • of 
the Roman Church. [Notes. 1. S. Peter at Rome — 3-8. Expres- 
sions Relating to the Dignity of Rome — 16. All Sinners received 
after Penance — 18. Three Views in the Early Church on irregular 
Baptism — 21. The term "Papa" — 29. Dionysius as a Theologian — 
33. Calculations from the Catacombs — 34. The Christians not " a 
mere refuse" — 39. Heathen Catholicity — 41. Catacombs — 43. Cem-_ 
etery Worship — 46. Episcopal Mai-tyrs — 53. Arnobius — 55. The 
Trophy of the Cross — 61. Council of Elvira — 62. Stratagem of 
Mensurius — 64. Donatist Succession] 254-278 

V. — The Church and School of Antioch : — The East theological — 
Theophilus — Babylas — Fabius — Paul of Samosata — His Faults and 
Errors — Councils — Death of Firmilianus — Paul Condemned — 
Catholic Unity — School of Antioch — Lucian and his Disciples — 
Last Persecution — Martyrdom of Lucian and others. [Note. 13. 
The term " Consubstantial "] 278-286 



Contents. xxv 

Chapter 

VI. — The Egyptian Church: — Origen's Disciples — Dionysius — Question 
of the Lapsed, of Baptism — Chiliasm, Nepos — Charity victorious — 
Sabellian Controversy — Era of the Martyrs — Meletian Schism — 
Anchorites, Hermits — S. Antony and Monachism — Martyrdom of 
Peter — Arius and Alexander. [Notes. 9-12. Orthodoxy of Dio- 
nysius — 15-24. S. Antony and Monasticism] 286-298 

VII. — The Churches in General : — The Great Epic a Type of Church 
History — Belt of the Mediterranean — Africa — Libya — Pentapolis — 
Egypt — Arabia — Palestine — Syria — The Farther East — Asia Minor 
— Macedonia and Achaia — Italy — Spain — Gaul — Britain. [Notes. 
3. Epochs — 14. S. James in Spain] 298-309 

VIII. — Church Life and Growth : — Season of Peace — Gibbon's Five 
Causes of Church Growth — The Progress of Christianity considered 
under the following heads — i. The Conflict between Truth and 
Error — ii. The Witness of the Martyrs — iii. Signs and Wonders — 
iv. Discipline — v. Strength in Numbers — vi. Catholic Unity and 
Church Polity — vii. Church life, domestic, public — Rites — Customs 
— Heathen Point of View — Aversion to the Arts — Austerity — Charity 
— Widows, Orphans, Slaves, Captives, etc. — Sources of Revenue — 
Simple Faith and patient Waiting. [Notes. 6. Reverence for Mar- 
tyrs — 9. Miracles not wrought at random — 19. Ignatian and Cyp- 
rianic Theories of the Episcopate — 22. Representative Idea in 
Synods — 23. Development Theory of Papal Supremacy — 25. Minor- 
Orders — 27, 28. Children not desired — t>?>- Diptychs and Commem- 
oration of the Departed — 42. Military Service — 45. Pictures — 46. 
Flowers — 53-55. Tithes, etc. — 57. Non-resistance] 3°9 - 337 

IX. — Times of Diocletian — Prosperity of the Church — Corruptions — Dio- 
cletian resolves on Persecution — Destruction of the Church in 
Nicomedia — Plan of the War — Edicts — Cruelties and Atrocities — * 
Number of Martyrs — Abdication of Diocletian and Maximian — 
Fate of the Persecutors — Severus — Galerius — Edict of Toleration — 
Maximin — Edict of Restitution — Maxentius — Maximian — Diocle- 
tian and his Family. [Notes. 2. Lactantius — 5. Hierocles — 25. 
Diocletian's Madness] 33^-354 

X. — Victory of Constantine : — Boldness of Constantine's Decision — 
Causes of his Conversion — His Vision — Trophy of the Cross in 
Rome — Real Nature of the Victory — Signs of a new Era — Licinius 
and Constantine — Edict from Milan — War between the two Em- 



xxvi Contents, 

CHAPTER 

perors — Persecution recommended— Second War — Constantino 
sole Emperor — His Character and Nature of his Faith — Type of 
a new Age of Christianity. [Notes. 3. Constantine's Vision — 6. 
Eusebius]. 354-364 



BOOK IV. 

I. — Arius and his Doctrine : — Arius and Alexander — Arian Tenets- 
Cautious Statements — Arian Logic — The idea of Time introduced 
into the Godhead — False Theories in the Church attacked by 
Arius — Arian principle of Interpretation — Its Import — Arianism an 
alien Mind — Person of Arius — Opposite views of his Character — 
His training at Antioch — His Dogma Platonic — Its tendency 
heathen. [Notes. 6. Insufficiency of Orthodox terms — 10. The 
Arian Mind Judaic — The New Platonic Trinity Arian, not 
Catholic] 3 6 7-375 

II. — Arius, Alexander, and Constantine : — Progress of the Heresy — 
Sect of Colluthus — The Deacon Athanasius — Arius condemned — 
Bishops favorable to Arius — Letters to and fro — Popular excitement 
— The Thalia of Arius — The Emperor interposes — His Letter on 
the subject — He sends Hosius as a mediator — Result of his Mis- 
sion — Arius and the Emperor — The new Ordeal for the Church. — 
[Notes. 7. Arian boast of Superior Intellect — 11. Praises of Hosius 
12. Baronius makes up History] 376-382 

III. — General Council of Nicea : — Idea of a General Council — The 
Synod called — Nicsea — The Three Hundred and Eighteen — Paph« 
nutius — Spyridion — Anti-Encratite Spirit — Acesius the Novatian — 
Alexander — Athanasius — Marcellus — Eusebius of Nicomedia 
Laymen at Nicaea — Heathen — a Philosopher converted — Or- 
der of business — Grievances disposed of — Arius rejected — 
Discussions and Debates — The term Consubstantial — Begotten, 
not made — Objections answered — Spiritual things spifitually 
discerned — Leading debaters — Secundus, Theonas and Arius 
banished — The Paschal question settled — Novatians and Mele- 
tians — Rights of Metropolitans — Canons — Closing Session — 
Address to the Emperor — Final action — Banquet in the Palace — 
The Emperor warns the Clergy against long Sei-mons — Synodal 
Epistle. [Notes. 1. Reason is the Common Sense of the Church — 



Contents. xxvii 

tHAPTER 

3. Allusions of the 318 — 4. Clergy and their Wives — 10. Explana- 
tion of Canon VI. — II. Established usage the basis of Canon law 
— 12. Who presided in the Council — 13. Hosius not a legate of the 
Bishop of Rome — 17. Spurious correspondence asking Papal sanc- 
tion to the Act of the Council] 382-393 

IV. — Constantine AND S. Helena : — State of feeling in Rome — Un- 
gracious reception of the Emperor there — Domestic Tragedy — 
Crispus and Fausta — Death of Crispus — Death of Fausta — The 
Emperor and his Mother — Building of New Rome — Grand 
Schemes — Distribution of the Army — Peace Policy — Attempts at 
Reform — Church and State — Faults of Constantine — Pilgrimage of 
S. Helena — Her Good Works — The Holy Sepulchre — Its Recovery 
— S. Helena dies — Council of Jerusalem. \_Notes. 3. Heathen 
superstitions of Constantine — 7. Saint-worship explained from 
Oriental Civil adulation — 13. Invention of the Cross] 394-401 

V. — The Eusebius Faction, and Death of Arius : — Eusebius and 
Theognis sent into Exile — Arians recalled — Their Confession satis- 
factory to the Emperor — Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria — Arius 
repelled by him — The Eusebian Policy — Eustathius of Antioch 
deposed — Schism in Antioch — Other Victims — Charges against 
Athanasius — Councils of Caesarea and Tyre — Charges disproved — 
Council at Jerusalem — Arius received into Communion, Athanasius 
and Marcellus deposed — Athanasius confronts the Emperor — New 
Accusation — Athanasius exiled to Gaul — Arius to be publicly 
received in Constantinople — Prayer of Alexander — Sudden death 
of Arius — Effect of it on the People, and on the Emperor — He 
prepares for his End — Flattery rebuked — He is baptized — His 
Death and Funeral. \_Notes. 5. Gibbon, Milman, and Athanasius 
on the death of Arius — 6. Eusebius on the Death of Constantine — 
7. The " Superstition " of late Baptism] 401-410 

VI. — Const antius — Arian Sects and Symbols : — Aspect of the Arian 
question — The Church the refuge of Liberty — Confusion of things 
Sacred and Profane — The Church used by the State — The Arian 
Court party — The Church a witness against Persecution — Five 
Divisions of the Subject: — i. Emperors — Constantine II. — Con- 
stans — Constantius — Eunuchs of the Palace — ii. Activity of the 
Eusebians — Weakness of Constantius — iii. Arian Creeds and 
Councils — Councils of Antioch, Sirmium, and Antioch again — 



xxviii Contents, 

CHAPTER 

Dated Creeds — Their evasive Character — iv. Arian Sects — The 
Semi-Arians — Their Symbol — Cyril of Jerusalem — Homceans or 
Acacians — Anomceans or Aetians — Eudoxius — Common ground of 
the Arian Sects. \_Notes. I. Athanasius on Persecution — io. 
Hosius signs the Creed of Sirmium] 410-418 

VIL — CONSTANTius — Ariam Persecutions: — v. Arian Persecutions — 
Council at Antioch and Second Exile of Athanasius — Innumerable 
Exiles in Rome — Council of Sardica — Schism begun between the 
East and West — Athanasius restored at the demand of Constans — 
His triumphant return — Sudden change on the death of Constans — 
Persecution renewed — Paul of Constantinople banished — Cruelties 
of Macedonius — Persecution extended to the West — Councils of 
Aries and Milan — S. Hilary of Poitiers — The Emperor kills by 
kindness — Fall of Liberius of Rome — Fall of Hosius — Athanasius 
forsaken — His escape from seizure — His Retreats and Activity — 
His abode among the Monks — Death of S. Antony — Security and 
Serenity among the Monks — Misrule in Alexandria — Geoi-ge of 
Cappadocia — Reign of Terror — Arian Quarrels — Council of Ancyra 
— A General Council called for — Meets at Ariminum and Seleucia — 
Homcean Triumph — General lapse precedes recovery — Arians part 
in two directions — Revival of zeal for Orthodoxy — Death of Con- 
stantius. [Notes. I. Julius of Rome misunderstood by Socrates — 
14. Story of Athanasius attended by a beautiful Virgin]... 418-430 

VIII. — Times of Julian the Apostate : — Change from Christianity to 
Philosophy — Julian's early training — Later Studies — At Athens, with 
Gregory Nazianzen and Basil — Mental Conflict — Julian's new Ideal 
— He is favored by Fortune — Becomes sole Emperor — Devotes him- 
self to a warfare against " the Galilsean " — Measures of Reform — 
Character of his Court — Acts of Justice — Pretended Toleration — 
Severities against Clergy and Laity — Mark of Arethusa — George 
the Arian — The Christians of Edessa — The Emperor's Sneers — 
Athanasius again banished — The Grove of Daphne near Antioch — 
Removal of the Remains of S. Babylas — The Antiocheans sing- 
Rage and Cruelty of Julian — Milder Persecution — Idolatry restored 
— The Pagan Priests lukewarm — The People satirical — Julian's liter- 
ary efforts — Cause of his Failure — Attempt to restore Judaism — 
Rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem begun — Its wonderful defeat 
— Invasion of Persia — Death of Julian — Prophecies going before it 
— Their meaning — Jovian Emperor — Valentinian, Valens. [Notes. 



Contents, xxix 

tHAPTER 

5. Neo-Platonism and Julian — 9. Julian's supernatural powers — 25, 
Fiery eruptions in the temple foundations at Jerusalem — 27. Gibbon 
open to ridicule — 29. Terminus beginning to retire.] 431-443 

IX. — Times of Valens. — Sects and Schisms : Prospects of Peace — Do- 
natists in North Africa — Subdued — Restored under Julian — Their 
violence — Council at Alexandria on the return of Athanasius — 
Schism in Antioch — Meletius and Paulinus — The Luciferians 
— The West pacified — Movement towards Unity in the East — 
Nicene Creed confessed — Valens begins a fresh Arian Persecu- 
tion — Athanasius retires, and soon returns — Cruelty of Valens — 
Heresies from the Orthodox side — Marcellus and Photinus — Apolli- 
naris — Minor Arian Sects — Aerius — Eunomius — Macedonius — The 
term Hypostasis — Minor Errors — Collyridians, etc. — Manichaeans, 
Priscillianists, in the West — Vagaries without number — Trials of the 
Times — Damasus, Bishop of Rome — S. Jerome — The Schism con- 
tinued in Antioch — S. Jerome in Rome — Ascetic Doctrine — Death 
of Blesilla from fasting — Jerome obliged to leave the City. \_Notes. 
3. The Circumcellions — 4. The Donatists suffered as Evil-doers, not 
as Errorists — 10. Meletius really Orthodox — 15. Theodorus consults 
Soothsayers — 18. Photinus and Marcellus — 28. S. Epiphanius — 30. 
Election of Damasus, Luxury of the Bishops of Rome]... 444-453 

X. — S. Basil and S. Gregory : — Champions of the Faith — S. Basil and 
Julian — Caesarea punished — Exciting election of a Bishop at Caesarea 
— Eusebius chosen — Two Parties — Basil's retreat — The Charm of 
Monastic Life — Basil made Bishop — Popular Distresses in Caesarea — 
S. Basil at issue with Valens — Factious Spirit at Caesarea — Murmurs 
and false Charges against Basil — He is plagued by the Pride of the 
West — Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Sasima — He retires to 
Nazianzus — Athanasius dies — Succeeded by an Arian — Ambrose 
chosen Bishop of Milan — Gratian Emperor — Death of Valens and 
Basil — Gregory in Constantinople — The Anastasia — The Revival 
of Faith and Charity — Gregory defends the Divinity of the Holy 
Spirit — Theodosius Emperor — Churches restored to the Orthodox. 
\_Notes. 4. Nazianzen on Elections of Bishops — 7. The Elder 
Gregory — 12. Humor of Gregory — 20. Miraculous power dis- 
claimed] 454-462 

XI. — Theodosius and the Second General Council : — Theodosius 
Orthodox — His zeal confirmed by an aged Bishop — The Council 



xxx Contents, 

CHAPTER 

of Constantinople — Its first business — Maximus the Cynic — He 
deceives Gregory — His plot — His enthroning as Bishop of Constan- 
tinople — He is rejected and abandoned — The Council declares him 
no Bishop — Gregory enthroned — Question of the Schism at Antioch 
— Opposition to the meddlesome spirit of the West — Flavian elected 
— Movement in the Council against Gregory — He resigns, and Nec- 
tarius is elected — The Council harmonized — The Creed completed 
and settled — The Canons — Synodical Epistle — Dissatisfaction of 
the West — Final approval of the Council — Gregory's farewell to 
Constantinople — He lives a Recluse in Nazianzus — Conference of 
the Sects — Heresies forbidden by the Emperor — Temporary Con- 
fusion in the West — Growing Power of the Roman See — First 
genuine Decretal Epistle. [Notes. 6. How Maximus was a Cynic 
— 9. Maximus dislikes the Tonsure — 10. The noble speech of 
Meletius — 12. Private Confession abolished under Nectarius — 13. 
Gregory's saying against Councils — 14. The Nicaeno-Constanti- 
nopolitan Creed in full — 18. Gregory's Poetry — 19. Gregory's 
Silence] 463-472 

XII. — Missions. — Monasticism. — S. Martin : — The Fourth Century polem- 
ical — The troubled Pool — Conversion of Iberia — The King's prayer 
for Light— The Church persecuted in Persia — India or Abyssinia — 
The Goths on the Danube — Bishop Ulfilas — Conversion of the Sar- 
acens — The Seed sowing itself — Strength of Paganism in the rural 
parts — Monachism — Its economical uses — Extraordinary state of 
Society — S. Antony in the Wilderness — Innumerable other Monks — 
The Cenobium — Anchorets, Watchers, Pillar-saints — Married 
Monks — Monastic Wisdom — Maxims — Monastic Rules — A check 
upon Enthusiasm — Special Mission of the Monks — Preaching — 
Valens persecutes the Monks — S. Basil's Rule — Early prejudice 
against Monachism in the West — S. Martin of Tours founds the 
first Western Monasteries — He is made Bishop — His Ascetic life — 
His field of labor in rural parts — His warfare against Superstition — 
Influence over the Pagans — Churches and Monasteries planted — 
Good service of the Monks — S. Martin forces his way into the 
Palace — His goodness of Heart — He pleads hard for the Priscillian- 
ists — He holds aloof from the Persecutors — His example a Rule of 
Mission Work — Splendor of the Church — The print of the Nails 
looked for — Monks the Country Missionaries. [Notes. 8. " Eject- 
ment " of laborers into the Vineyard — 9. For everrit some read 
evertit — 12. Mental state of the early Monks — 16. Monks preachers 



Contents. xxxi 

tHAPTER 

of Moderation — 17. Difference between Heathen and Christian 
Monachism 18. A Monastery, a Hospital — 19. Monks spoke the 
Vernacular- 20. Monachism hated in the African Church — 21. 
Filth cultivated — 24. Miracles of S. Martin — 25. Wild Dreams of 
Monks — 27. Plea of the Bishops who persecuted the Priscillianists 
— 29. Monachism always in need of Reforms] 472—489 

XIII. — Church and State. — Ambrose and Theodosius : — Positron of 
the Church settled by Theodosius — Privileges, Exemptions, and 
Honors under previous Emperors — The Lord's Day — Heathen 
abuses corrected — But sacrifices allowed — Dread of Atheism — 
Constantius prohibited Sacrifices — Temples destroyed — Magic 
rites punished — The Church needing to be restrained by Law — 
Gratian the first to refuse the title of Pontiff — State Encroachments — 
The " Episcopate from without " — The Church encroaching in civil 
matters — Effect of this on the Roman Laws — Conflicts of Church 
and State— Ambrose of Milan — His Studies — His public Life — His 
Influence — Hostility of Justina — How the See of Sirmium was 
filled — Contest with Symmachus against restoring the Altar of Vic- 
tory — Pie refuses the demand of the Court for a Church for the 
Arians — The contest for the Basilicas — The New Basilica — Popular 
Excitement — The Soldiers submit — The Psalm for the Day — The 
Court yields — TI12 Contest renewed the next year — Services night 
and day — Relics of the Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius — The 
Court yields again — Theodosius in Milan — Required to withdraw 
from the Sanctuary — Case of the burned Synagogue — The Emperor 
yields — Outrage at Thessalonica — The Emperor's Revenge, and 
Massacre in Thessalonica — Letter of Ambrose — Penance of Theo- 
dosius — His Restoration — Triumph of the Church — Severe edicts 
against Idolatry — The Serapeum — Rats — Rhetorical avengers of 
Paganism — The Struggle long continued — Paganism finally con- 
quered towards the middle of the sixth Century. \_Notes. 12. Am- 
brose silences an Arian virgin — 13. Terminus retreating — 22. Soph- 
istry of passion in Ambrose — 24. Ambrose familiar with the doings 
in the Palace — 27. Divine honors to Theodosius on his Death — 29. 
Shouting at the Moon during an Eclipse — 32. Decrease of Conver- 
sions from Paganism] <• 489-505 



xxxii Contents. 



BOOK V. 

CHAPTER 

I.— Nestorius and S. Cyril : — Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople—. 
His Zeal against Heretics — His denial of the title Theotokos — Pre- 
paring for Battle — Cyril's Paschal Epistle on the Incarnation — 
Three Sermons of Nestorius— His Doctrine, and Evasions — General 
Excitement — Sermon of Proclus — Answers of Nestorius — S. Cyril's 
Early Career — His trying Position — His encroachment on the Civil 
Power — His excesses — Quarrel with Orestes — Hierax tortured — 
Massacre of the Christians — Expulsion of the Jews — Efforts for 
Peace — Orestes refuses Peace — Riot of the Monks — Ammonius 
called a Martyr — Hypatia — Suspicions against her — Barbarously 
murdered by the Christians — Fourteen years of Quiet — Character of 
S. Cyril — S. Isidore of Pelusium, his Monitor — Cyril and Nestorius 
— Nestorius and Celestine — Letters to the Roman Church — Council 
in Rome — John of Antioch writes to Nestorius — The Answer of 
Nestorius, full of Heresy and Pride — Cyril's Twelve anathemas — 
Nestorius rejoins with twelve counter Anathemas. [Notes. 6. 
" Eveiy spirit which divideth Jesus Christ" — 7. Logical connection 
between the Nesrorian and Pelegian heresies. — 9. Threefold bias of 
Socrates against Cyril — 11. Terrific Monks — 12. Hypatia unsexing 
herself revoltingly — 13. Parobolani — 16. Milman's unfairness to 
Cyril — 18. Real Meaning of the word Anathema — 19. Transub- 
stantiation unknown 509-522 

II. — Council of Ephesus. — Syrian Christianity : — Meeting of the 
Council — Debates while waiting for John of Antioch — The Council 
opened, in spite of Protests — Nestorius condemned — A Rival 
Council — The Court interferes — The deposition of Nestorius con- 
firmed — Cyril and John reconciled — Theodoret inclines to Nestorius 
— End of Nestorius — Spread of Nestorianism in Syria, Persia, and 
the further East — Peculiar Views of those called Nestorians, 523-528 

III. — Eutyches and the Council of Chalcedon ; — Strife between 
Dioscorus and Theodoret — Eutyches questioned at Constantinople 
— He asserts only One Nature in Christ — Three Forms of the 
Heresy — Eutyches condemned — A new Trial ordered — Character 
of Dioscorus — His colleagues in the Robber Council — Eutyches 
cleared, Flavianus and Eusebius condemned — Flavianus dies of 
his injuries — All records of the Robber Council destroyed — Mistake 
of Dioscorus as to the strength of Party Spirit — Leo demands a new 



Contents. xxxiii 

CHAPTER 

Council — The Emperor declines — Character and Reign of Theodo- 
sius II. — Pulcheria educates him — Monachism luxuriant in the 
Palace — Pilgrimage of Eudocia to Jerusalem — Strange forms of 
Asceticism — Liberality of the Empress — Sensuous enthusiasm — 
The Insane not shut up in the East — Relic Worship — Marcian, 
Emperor — Meeting of the Council of Chalcedon — Number and 
Order of the Bishops — Officers of the Empire preside — First busi- 
ness — Dioscorus on Trial — Dioscorus and his Colleagues con- 
demned — Dioscorus contumacious — The four definitions of the 
four General Councils — Leo's famous Letter examined carefully, 
and accepted on its Merits, not on the Authority of the Roman 
See — Dioscorus banished — Hard case of his Egyptian Suffragans — 
A truce allowed them — Theodoret called up — He attempts to 
explain — A Hearing repeatedly denied him — He submits — The 
Canons — The Canon XXVIII. opposed by Rome — Acquiesced in 
at last. \_Notes. 7. Beauty of the Scenery at Chalcedon], .529— 541 

IV. — The Monophysites : — Effect of the Council — Accepted by the 
Greek Intellect, not by the Oriental Nationalities — Troubles in 
Egypt — The new Patriarch rejected — Timothy the Cat — Proterius 
murdered — Decline of the Church in Egypt — Shadows cast before 
— Egyptian Monachism Coptic, not Greek — Conservative Elements 
— The Liturgies in the Vernacular — Monophysite Patriarchs reside 
in the Thebais — Coptic Christianity — Madness of the People — 
Entire Alienation — The Saracens preferred to the Orthodox — Gen- 
eral falling away — Similar effects in Palestine — Difference of a 
Letter — The real quarrel was between Greek sway and Nativism — 
Barsumas raging in Syria — Jacob Baradai — General Result — The 
Monophysite the same in principle with the Nestorian Heresy — 
Numberless Monophysite Sects — Dioscorians — Eutychians and 
Dioscorians anathematize one another in Syria — Policy of the Em- 
perors — Leo proposes to ignore Chalcedon — Zeno's Henoticon — 
Schism between the East and West for thirty-five years — Anastasius 
punishes both those who accept and those who reject the Council of 
Chalcedon — Riots about the Trisagion in Constantinople — Anasta- 
sius resigns, and resumes, the Cx"own — Rebellion of Vitalian — 
Reconciliation with Rome, and establishment of the Authority 
of the Council of Chalcedon. [Notes. 5. Exaggeration of Relig- 
ious Riots — 7. The Liturgies a Conservative Element — 8. S. 
Thomas traditionally the Apostle of Syria and the further East, 
to India] 54-I-55Q 



xxxiv Contents. 

CHAPTER 

V. — Justinian and the Fifth General Council : — Justinian a lay 
Pope and Persecutor — Theodora, head of the Opposition party 
— Public Works — S. Sophia — Reform of the Roman Laws — Roman 
Popery forced to yield to that of Constantinople — Tenets of Origen 
condemned — The Three Chapters — Pope Vigilius opposes at first, 
but at last anathematizes the Three Chapters — Fifth General 
Council meets at Constantinople— Constitutuiw of Vigilius ignored 
— The Three Chapters Condemned — Vigilius confesses that he was 
instigated by the Devil — The Monophysites not appeased — the 
Monks of Palestine aggrieved — Schisms in the West for a Century 
and a half — Justinian dies a Heretic at last — His successors meddle 
little with Theology — Heraclius recovers the Wood of the True 
Cross — First inroads of the Saracens. \_Notes. I. Public and Secret 
Histories of Procopius — 2. Theodora not to be condemned on the 
lies of Procopius — 4. A Monk's Dream about Justinian — 10. Hon- 
esty and Piety of Evagrius the Historian] 55°-555 

VI. — MONOTHELITE HERESY AND THE SlXTH GENERAL COUNCIL : — 

Edict of Heraclius affirming only one Will in Christ — Nature 
of the Heresy — The last Link of a long Chain of Efforts — Four 
Patriarchs deceived — Sophronius, a Monk, sounds the Alarm — 
Honorius, Bishop of Rome, commits himself to the Heresy — The 
Ecthesis of Heraclius — The Typus of Constans II. — Cruel treat- 
ment of Pope Martin — Barbarity towards others of the Orthodox — 
Saracen conquests — Jerusalem captured — Alexandria taken — Con- 
stantinople saved by the Greek Fire — The Saracens do homage for 
their possessions in Syria and Egypt — The Sixth General Council 
meets in Constantinople — Failure of an attempted Miracle — Pope 
Honorius anathematized — The Council affirms two Wills, and two 
Operations, without Division, Change, or Confusion — The Trullan or 
Quinisext Council — One hundred and eleven Canons — This code 
of Canons not accepted in the West — Estrangement between East 
and West thereby increased — Futile attempt to condemn the Sixth 
General Council — The Monothelite Heresy lingered among the 
Maronites of the Libanus — They submit to Rome — The Work 
accomplished by the Age of the General Councils — The Faith kept. 
\_Notes. 3. The timeliness of great discoveries and Inventions — 4. 
Vain attempts to excuse Pope Honorius — 5. The Sneers of Gibbon 
and others in reference to the History of Controversy] 555 - 56° 

Appendix, on Pope Honorius 561-564 

Index 565 



BOOK I. 



THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 



JOHN THE BAPTIST 



TI1E SECOND DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM^ 



A.D. 30-I35. 



[The first three Books of this History are a simple reprint from the first 
Edition published in 1 860, the Author having left no copy with corrections, and 
the Editor having added only an occasional reference in a foot-note. The 
fourth and fifth Books, including the account of all the " undisputed General 
Councils," were left by the Author prepared for the press, having been finished 
some years before his departure, even to the marginal notes. There has been 
nothing for the Editor to do, except to continue the Chronological Table, and 
the table of Contents, and complete the brief Appendix, besides which, he has 
added a full Index to the whole work. — J. H. H. Jr.] 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Book I. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE ORGANIZATION. 

The history of the Church, being an account of the earthly 
growth or manifestation of God's kingdom, is most properly 
introduced by the mission of John the Baptist, the 
Forerunner of the Messiah. He came preaching the Fore - 

x " runner. 

Kingdom of Heaven near at hand. As his star de- 
clined, the theme was taken up by One mightier than he ; 
who, proclaiming the same tidings, sent forth His disciples two 
by two before His face, to preach to the Jews, saying, The 
kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. This prophesying 
continued to the close of the earthly ministry of our Lord, a 
period of about three years. 1 

And as the Kingdom of God was the burden of all preaching 
at that time, so it was the object of universal and earnest ex- 
pectation. The Law and the Prophets continued until John ; 

1 According to Dr. Jarvis, the Annunciation took place in March, and the 
Birth of our Lord on December 25, of the year 4707, J. P. ; He began His 
ministry 30 years after, January 6, of 4738 ; He was crucified on March 26, 
rose March 28, and ascended May 6, of 4741, J. P. ; there being ^ years and 
about 3 months between the Birth and Crucifixion. See Chronological Intro- 
duction to the Hist, of the Church, by the Rev. S. F. Jarvis, D.D., LL.D. For 
dates in this vol. see Riddle, Ecc. Chron. 



2 History of the Church. 

but when the fulness of the times revealed a higher Dispen- 
Expecta- sa ti 01 V a ^ men, consciously or unconsciously, were 
^inldom' P ressm g towards it. Among the Jews devout men 
were waiting for the Kingdom. 3 Among the Gen- 
tiles, Poets sang of Saturnian rule : Philosophers dreamed of 
ideal commonwealths. Wise men from the East came with 
regal gifts to the cradle of the Lord. Rude soldiers from the 
West flocked with scribes and pharisees, publicans and sinners, 
to the baptism of repentance proclaimed by John the Baptist. 

Our Lord himself preached the Kingdom chiefly under the 
Parable.^ form of similitudes or parables. In a series of simple 
of tL pictures, drawn from familiar scenes and ordinary 
callings, yet so nicely delineated that every stroke and 
shade has a meaning of its own, He left an inexhaustible 
treasure of the "notes," or prominent features of the Church. 
The promised reign was to be earthly in its position, heavenly 
in its character ; 4 it was to be established everywhere ; s it was 
to embrace the common social mixture of good and evil; 6 it 
was to be subject to all the vicissitudes of natural growth and 
progress, 7 yet to vindicate its divine origin by a wondrous vital- 
ity, 8 and power of persistence and endurance: 9 in short, it was 
to be visible and invisible, present and future, natural and 
supernatural, a mystery, and to some a stumbling-block, 10 till 
its complete and triumphant manifestation at the end of time. 
Our Lord taught more clearly, that the Head of this dispensa- 
tion was to be absent in body, though present in Spirit ; and in 
His absence its affairs were to be administered by servants, 
having all a charge in common, yet each with his own share of 
trust and responsibility." 

2 S. Luke, xvi. 16. 3S. Mark, xv. 43. 

4S. John, xvii. 15, 16. s S. Matt. xiii. 33. 

6 S. Matt. xiii. 26. 7 S. Mark, iv. 27, 28. 

8 S. Mark, iv. 31, 32. 9 S. Matt. xvi. 18. 

10 S. Matt. xi. 6; S. John, xvii. 14. 

11 The parable of the potmd indicates the common trust, that of the 
talents the different degrees of responsibility. S. Luke, xix. 12-25; S. Matt, 
xxv. 15. 



The Organization. 3 

The works of Jesus, also, were evidently intended to be sig- 
nificant of the reisrn He came to establish among men. .,_ , . 

° Works of 

They were "signs" of the kingdom: parables in ac- Jesus. 

tion. " To the inquiry of the Baptist, whether the promised 
One had come, it was deemed an amply sufficient answer that 
"the lame walked, the blind saw, the deaf heard, lepers were 
cleansed, the dead were raised," and, as the crowning boon of all, 
that the poor had the Gospel preached to them. 12 It is not neces- 
sary to show here, how many of these miracles are capable of a 
typical, allegorical, or even prophetic application, foreshadow- 
ing certain features of the history of the Church. 13 It is enough 
to notice, in general, that they are miracles of mercy rather 
than of power; and in reference to the office of the State, or 
of society, are of a complementary, not antagonistic character. 
They show that Christ came not to destroy, but to complete, to 
fill up. > His kingdom "full of grace and truth" was to leaven 
all other kingdoms ; to infuse its own spirit into all other organ- 
izations; but, in the meantime, to address itself to objects not 
contemplated in the scheme of political societies, nor indeed 
capable of being profitably undertaken by them. Duty to 
Caesar, therefore, can never interfere with duty to God. Be- 
tween the two there is no rivalry, no antagonism. The king- 
dom, though in the world, is not of the world. 

Such, in substance, was the teaching of our Lord, both in 

12 S. Matt. xi. 3. 

J 3 Thus, the two fishing scenes (S. Luke, v. 6, and S. John, xxi. n), the 
one before and the other after the Resurrection, the one with a net broken 
from the number of fishes, the other with the net unbroken, became symbols 
of the Church militant and the Church triumphant: so withth'e two voyages 
of our Lord's Disciples, which gave rise to that beautiful and expressive sym- 
bol of the heavenward-bound ship : so with many other images familiar to 
readers of the early Church fathers. Strauss, in his famous Leben Jestt, sees 
only this typical character of the miracles, and therefore treats them as myths. 
The early Fathers saw the same doctrinal and prophetic significance of the 
miracles, but were only the more convinced thereby that they were facts, 
namely divine facts. For the more meaning a fact has in it, the more divine 
it is. See Olshausen's Com. p. 356 (Am. ed.). 



4 History of the Church. 

His words and works. The same complementary character 
distinguished His ethical precepts, and discourses to 
o/Ve'ack- the people. Not novelty but harmony, completeness, 
and above all, authority, made His words such as 
never man spake. As the great seed-sower of the kingdom, He 
announced principles rather than dogmas : principles, which are 
ever budding with new life, whose vitality is as vigorous and 
fresh now, as when it first awakened the dull minds of the 
Disciples. It may be observed further, that in His way of 
announcing these principles He was the model of all teachers. 
The ancient philosophers, with perhaps one exception, 14 had in 
the promulgation of high truths addressed themselves exclusively 
to an elevated class. They had affected a knowledge which 
could be communicated only to the initiated few. It was a 
peculiarity of our Lord's instructions, that while they contained 
the profoundest truths, they were couched in language so per- 
fect in form, so beautiful, so simple, so catholic, that though an 
angel may fail to penetrate their depth, yet a child may receive 
them with delight, and draw instruction from them. There 
was, therefore, no need of the "reserve," or disciplina arcani, 
affected by the philosophers. What was whispered in the ear 
was expressed in terms which could equally well be proclaimed 
from the house-top. 

But as our Lord preached the kingdom He proceeded 
Ministry pari passu to prepare and organize its Ministry ; 
organized, i^mg the foundation in Himself, as Prophet, Priest, 
and King, and in that chosen company of disciples, His 
" friends " and fellow-workers, who by faith and a special call- 
ing first became partakers of His life-giving nature. Himself 
the Rock and the living Stone, He made living stones of those 
whom He had enabled to confess Him. 15 This He did, how- 
ever, only by degrees, and in proportion as the character of His 
mission was gradually unfolded. 

x 4 Namely, Socrates ; who was much ridiculed by the polished Athenians 
for clothing divine philosophy in the language of mechanics and shopkeepers. 
X 5S. Matthew, xvi. 18; I Pet. ii. 4, 5; Ephes. ii. 20; Rev. xxi. 14. 



The Organization. 5 

Baptized in the Jordan unto the baptism of John, and sealed 
by the Witness and the Spirit from the Father, He began the 
prophetic ministry already spoken of in this chapter, p r0 *hetic 
and made both the Twelve and the Seventy partakers 
of the same. As He preached the coming kingdom and wrought 
"signs," He sent them before His face with a like message and 
like powers. By a wonderful course of minute teaching, of 
which the substance only is recorded in the Gospels, 16 He 
trained them the meanwhile for positions of higher trust after- 
wards to be given. So in the second stage of His ministerial 
work : when, on the night in which He was betrayed, He entered 
upon the exercise of His priest/y office, offering Himself 
a willing offering for the sin of the whole world, He r ?s y ' 
instituted a solemn memorial of His death and sacrifice, and 
commissioned the Apostles 17 to continue the same mystic rite in 
remembrance of Him. So, finally: when He began 
to enter upon His reign, having risen from the dead, 
a king, victorious over hell, and endued with all power in 
heaven and in earth, He gave them the full commission so often 
before promised ; l8 sending them forth as the Father had sent 
Him, to make disciples of all nations, to evangelize and bap- 
tize, to minister in things sacred, to bind and loose, to teach, to 

16 S. John, xxi. 25. 

x 7ln the Christian Church, as in the Jewish — (i Pet. ii. 5, and Exod. xix. 
6) — the kingly and priestly character belongs to all believers, all being par- 
takers of Christ the Head. But, as it belongs to Christ in one sense, and to 
His people in another, so it belongs to the ministry in a third sense. It 
belongs to Christ absolutely, as Head; to the ministry ministerially, as repre- 
senting Christ to His people ; and to His people derivatively , as His body, 
representing Him to the world at large. In the following work, however, I 
use the terms "kingly, priestly, and prophetic," in their larger sense, chiefly: 
as indicating respectively the ministry of government — of rites, sacraments, 
etc., — and of that out-going activity in works of mercy, with preaching, 
teaching, etc., which is preparatory to the more exact training in the Church. 

18 S. Matt. xvi. 17-19; xix. 28; S. Mark, i. 17. In such passages 
there is a promise. In S. Matt, xxviii. 18, etc., etc., there is the actual gift 
of authority. 



6 History of the Church. 

rule, and, in short, to be His Apostles or Ambassadors to the 
end of time. 

To this He added final and particular instructions; fre- 
quently appearing to the disciples during the space of forty 
The rreat days, performing miracles profoundly significant 19 of 
Forty Days, the spiritual character of His reign, and speaking to 
them of the things pertaining to the kingdom. 

Having thus provided for the earthly future of His kingdom, 
like a prince, who, about to journey into a far country, commits the 
management of his estate to chosen ministers or stewards, 20 He 
gave His parting benediction to the Disciples ; went away from 
The Ascen- tnem i ascended triumphantly into heaven, and sat 
sun. down in His proper place at the right hand of God. 

From the day of the Ascension, the Disciples waited in 
The Disci- J erusaiem > for "the promise of the Father:" that 
thswait- "power" of the Holy Ghost, which should enable 
them to do the work committed to them, first in Jeru- 
salem and Judaea, then in Samaria, and finally among all nations 
to the utmost borders of the earth. 

They were now an Ecclesia™ a spiritual commonwealth or 
The Form- society, duly called, trained, instructed, and com- 
l Qitcken- missioned for God's work; but it remained for the 
tng ' Spirit to give life and energy to their ministry. They 

were a house rightly ordered, with the candles set upon candle- 
sticks, and each thing in its place ; but it needed a divine Light 
to light the candles, that the order of the house might be made 
apparent. They were, in short, an organized body, fitly joined 
and compacted ; but, as in the original creation God first formed 
man of the dust of the earth, and then breathed into his nos- 
trils that breath of life by which man became a living soul, so, 

^S. Luke, xxiv. 31; S. John, xx. 19; xxi. I— II. 

20 S. Matt. xxv. 14. 

21 Ecclesia — concilium, ccnciliabulum, synodus, colleguim, by which 
names it was often called in early times. The term "kingdom" applies to it 
only as complete in Christ the Head. We pray, therefore, "Thy kingdom 
come." We wait for "His appearing and His Kingdom." 



The Pentecostal Gift. 7 

in the mystical Body of Christ, the framing and the quickening 
were kept distinct from one another. The Word had _,. _,. 

r 1 he King 

fashioned and created, the Spirit was to quicken. The an-dPara- 
King had organized, the Paraclete was to inspire, and 
energize, and guide: to give practical efficiency to the whole 
order and administration. 

In the meantime, however, the Disciples did not await in 
idleness the advent of the promised Paraclete. They continued 
with one accord in prayer and supplication ; and as a breach 
had been made in their body by the apostasy of Judas, they 
elected one of their number to fill the vacant place. Matthias 
Matthias was duly chosen by the action of the Disci- chosen. 
pies, and by the will of God. He took the Bishopric of Judas, 
and was numbered among the twelve Apostles. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PENTECOSTAL GIFT. 



When the promised Day arrived, it found the Disciples, 
thus, in the fulness of their number as originally called. There 
were about one hundred and twenty names enrolled, „ r . 

J ' Number of 

among whom were the Twelve, and probably the tkeDisci- 

. pies. 

Seventy, all belonging to that devout class of Jews 

who are described as waiting for the Kingdom. Besides these 

there were possibly as many as five hundred, 1 male and female, 

who were included under the general name of Brethren. Not 

this larger number, however, but probably only the smaller one 

first mentioned, were assembled "in one place " on the Day of 

Pentecost. 

At the same time, in compliance with the Law, and by vir- 

1 I Cor. xv. 6. 



8 History of the Church. 

tue of a long course of providential Preparation, 2 there was a 
„, . much larger concourse of devout and faithful Tews, 

ihe As- ° J t 

se fffi?*?t W ^° nao ^ come up from every quarter to the annual 
yews. Feast of the First Fruits. For the Israelites, at this 

time, were at home everywhere. In the expressive language of 
the Prophet, they were "sown" among the nations; they were 
p "the dew upon the grass" of heathen society, pre- 

tion - paring the field for the sickle of the Gospel reapers. 

They were bearing an ecumenical witness to the unity of the 
Godhead. It was as representatives, then, of a vast system of 
preparation, that these devout Jews, the Flower of the Dis- 
persion, had once more assembled to wait upon the Lord, and 
to give utterance to that unceasing prayer of the Jewish heart, 
"Lord, wilt Thou, at this time, restore again the Kingdom to 
Israel?" 

The congregation of the Disciples was thus in the midst of 
the Assembly of devout Hebrews, the Dispersion, the Nations, 
as the "little leaven hid in three measures of meal." It re- 
quired but a breath from on high to enable that leaven to leaven 
the whole lump. 

How that Breath came, in a way as beautifully significant as 
D it was miraculous, filling the whole house wherein the 

of the Disciples were assembled, and what was the imme- 

Spirii. L 

diate result, is familiar to every reader of the Acts of 
the Apostles. 

It is sufficient to note here, that though three thousand souls 
were forthwith converted to the Gospel, and though every day 

2 The Preparation for Christianity is the history of Civilization in the 
ancient world. As the Law was a Fcedagogus leading men to Christ, so, also, 
says S. Clement of Alexandria, was the philosophy or culture of the Greeks. 
The same good Providence was manifest in both. On this subject see Bossu- 
et's Histoire Universelle, Jarvis's Church of the Redeemed, and Neander's In- 
troduction. This last, however, is a history of the preparation for the Gospel 
merely; whereas the progress of civilization among the ancients, both Jews and 
Greeks, prepared the way equally for the Gospel and the Church. Mosheim's 
first chapter dwells too much on the negative preparation; i.e., upon the fail- 
ure of everything that preceded Christianity. 



The Pentecostal Gift. 9 

afterwards added to the number, the Apostles were at no loss in 
establishing order among the multitudes who thus fts 

eagerly pressed in. The divine instructions in "the g iven - 
things pertaining to the Kingdom," recently received, had 
doubtless prepared them for so great an emergency. Accord- 
ingly, those who believed were baptized. Upon those baptized, 
the Apostles laid their hands, imparting to them "gifts," which, 
in the lack of a sufficient number of duly trained Ministers, seem 
to have fitted the whole body for some share in the great work, 
and to have made the ministry, for a while, almost coextensive 
with the Church itself. 3 At all events, the converts freely of- 
fered themselves, and all they had, to the disposal of the 
Apostles. 

In this way the foundation of the Church was laid in that 
race, or rather in that blessed and covenanted "rem- 
nant," to which it had been originally promised. The Founda- 
chosen people continued the chosen people still. Jews 
were the first proclaimers of the Gospel ; Jews its first converts; 
the first demonstration of its order, as of its power, was in a 
community exclusively Judaic. 

And the application of this principle was not confined to 
Jerusalem, or Palestine only. These Pentecostal con- InaU p arts 
verts, sojourners as many of them were in far distant worii 
lands, could hardly have failed, after a while, to return 
to the places of their dispersion, and to spread the glad tidings 
of what they had seen and heard. 4 As S. Paul testified not 
many years after, 5 the sound of the Gospel went out into all 

3 The "gifts" were given "for the perfecting {i.e., fitting) of the saints 
{i.e., believers), for (or literally into or unto) work of ministry," etc. Ephes. 
iv. 7-12. The word " ministry " I understand in its larger sense, as including 
all kinds of service to the Church. 

4 Among the first preachers mentioned in the Acts were "Nicolas, a 
proselyte of Antioch" "Ananias," a "disciple" in Damascus, "men of 
Cyprus and Cyrene" and Lucius, of Cyrene ; to whom may be added Saul 
of Tarsus, and Apollos of Alexandria. Acts, vi. 5 ; ix. 10; xi. 20; xiii. 
1, etc. 

5 Rom. x. 18. 



io History of the Church. 

lands, its words to the ends of the world. Through Judaism, as 
through a vast nervous tissue, the notes of the Pentecostal 
trumpet were indefinitely prolonged. Everywhere Israelites be- 
lieved, or had opportunity to believe. Of the wide-spreading 
tree of Judaism, therefore, it might truly be said, that the stock 
which contained the faith, not merely the blood, of Abraham, 
was renovated and saved by reception of the Gospel : the unbe- 
lieving branches were alone cut off. 6 



CHAPTER III. 

THE TWELVE IN JERUSALEM. 



The Apostles remained in Jerusalem, for a period, it is sup- 
Tweive P ose d, of about twelve years ; making frequent excur- 
Years. sions, however, into the towns of Judaea, Samaria, 
Galilee, and. even, it may have been, into more distant regions. 
So long a residence in one place was warranted by the im- 
T . . portance of Terusalem, as the sacred city of the 

ivtportance r J ' J 

o/jerusa- Hebrews, as a point of universal concourse, and as 
the living heart of orthodox religion. 1 From such a 
centre it was easy to keep an eye upon all other quarters. It 
was the place, especially, to which those devout men resorted 
annually, who were in fit preparation for the Kingdom, and 
who could be most readily converted, not into believers merely, 
but into Evangelists and Teachers for all parts of the world. It 
was the most proper position, in short, for the first manifesta- 
tion of the Gospel, both m its power and in its order. As the 
proselytes, gathered everywhere from among the Jews of the 

6 The subject of the Judaic foundation is ably brought out in Thiersch's 
History of the Christian Church, translated by Thomas Carlyle, Esq. 

1 See Professor Blunt's Lectures on the Church History of the First 
Three Centuries. 



The Twelve in yerusalem. 1 1 

Dispersion, would naturally look to Zion as the fountain-head 
of the true Law, 2 nothing could be more essential _ u , _. 

' ° \ Out of Zion 

than that the system established there should be in the Law. 
every way perfect and complete. The Apostles, therefore, 
were not unmindful of the command to "go forth " and "disci- 
ple ' ' all the nations. They made Jerusalem their starting-point. 
They concentrated there for a while that outgoing energy, by 
which the world was to be converted. For the further stages of 
their mission, they waited till the door should be fairly opened, 
or till the Lord Himself should give them the expected sign. 

The Church in Jerusalem, therefore, was the object of 
interest for a while to the whole company of the Apostles. 
Under their care, the little band of Pentecost grew into a large 
and thoroughly disciplined host. Trained already to 

the form of godliness by the admirable discipline of costal Soci - 

et y-, A - D - 33- 
the Synagogue and Temple, the Hebrew converts were 

moulded with little effort into an orderly, regular, self-sacrific- 
ing life. The doctrine of the Apostles was their rule of faith ; 
the communion of the Apostles their bond of fellowship. To 
avoid needless separation from their countrymen, they resorted 
for "prayers" to the Temple. To abstain from needless of- 
fence, they celebrated the "breaking of bread," and the "love- 
feast," in houses more retired. Giving themselves and their all 
to the common cause, with a profound conviction that the work 
before them was one which demanded their utmost efforts, they 
spontaneously fell into a sort of camp-life : a continu- N c 
ation, as it were, of that annual exhibition of mutual munist. 
support, and fraternal equality, which the Jews were accustomed 
to afford at their solemn feasts. For it was not the least of the 
advantages of those great gatherings, that they promoted, for 
the time being at least, a hospitality which made "all things 
common." They were seasons at which the rich differed from 
the poor chiefly in the power of giving and entertaining. The 
earliest Jewish Christian Church was a prolongation, as it were, 
of one of these happy times. It was a Pentecostal week ex- 

2 Mic. iv. 2. 



1 2 History of the Church. 

tending itself into a Pentecostal life. It required, of course, no 
little sacrifice of domestic comfort. But the sacrifice was a 
spontaneous and free-will offering. It was accompanied, there- 
fore, with a gladness and singleness of heart, which distin- 
guished it from mere communistic or monastic schemes, and 
commended it to the favor of all classes of the people. 

So heavenly a state of things could not continue long un- 
Sinof disturbed in any community of men. Ananias and 
ind nms Sapphira, attempting to serve two masters, introduced 
Sapphira. - nt0 ^ i n f ant society the old Jewish leaven of secret 
mammon-worship. It was the sin of Achan : avarice availing 
itself of things devoted to the Lord. It was an offence that lay 
at the door of the Church's progress : and was punished by the 
same righteous vengeance, which on two occasions before had 
armed our Lord with the knotted scourge, and which we find 
breaking out twice afterwards on the thresholds respectively of 
Samaritan and Gentile Christianity. 

Differences, also, which had been forgotten in the first glow 
Dissen- of charity, began to be felt again, and the peace of the 
sions. Church was marred by frivolous dissensions. 

The Hellenist converts murmured against the Hebrews, be- 
cause, as they complained, their widows were neglected in the 
daily ministration of the bounties of the Church. In such cases 
Charity is obliged to call in system to her aid. To do justice 
to any ministration there must be special ministers appointed 
for the purpose. The Apostles, therefore, called an Assembly 
of the body of the Disciples ; stated the incompatibility of 
cares of this kind with their own more spiritual duties; and 
caused seven men to be chosen, probably from among 
Deacons, the Hellenist party, whom they set apart by the laying 
on of hands to attend to such matters in future. The 
seven thus chosen and ordained, are the first, perhaps, 3 who 
received the distinctive title of Deacons. , 

3 This, and other matters connected with the Pentecostal Church, are 
amply discussed in Mosheim's Commentaries, and Bishop Hinds's History 
of the First Century. 



The Twelve in Jerusalem. 1 3 

A similar necessity for orderly distribution of ministerial cares 
led the Apostles, about this time, according to Eusebius, or it 
may have been a little later, to place James, surnamed 
the Just, one of the Lord's brethren, in special over- made 

sight of the Church in Jerusalem. Though the Apos- 
tles remained in the city, or thereabouts, yet their attention 
soon began to be diverted to other quarters. Nothing was more 
natural, then, than that a responsibility, which devolving upon 
all alike might be in danger of being neglected, should be laid 
especially upon one as his proper and peculiar charge. 

It is still a question whether this James is the same as the 
son of Alphaeus, one of the original Twelve, or is 
to be numbered rather with Apostles of a somewhat Ja Apostie. 
later calling. If one of the Twelve, his oversight of 
the Church in Jerusalem is the first instance of one of their 
number confined to a local jurisdiction. Whether one of them 
or not, he was at all events a colleague of the Apostles, on 
terms of perfect equality with them ; and was treated on all 
occasions of Apostolic conference, as one of the "pillars," or 
as the word in its connection seems to imply, one of the origi- 
nal pillars ,^of the Church. 4 

This settlement of the government in Jerusalem, under one 
responsible head, may have been hastened by a series of events, 
which followed close upon the appointment of the Seven. The 
increased zeal in preaching, and the growing popularity of the 
Gospel, awakened the spirit of persecution among the 
Sadducee rulers. Peter and John were seized twice, Hon, 

A.D. 34. 

and narrowly escaped with their lives. A more furious 

storm was excited against Stephen, one of the seven deacons. 

4 Acts, xv. 13-22; Gal. ii. 9. In this last passage jfames, Cephas, and 
John give to Paul and Barnabas "the right hand of fellowship," and are 
spoken of as Apostles before these latter, i.e., of an earlier calling. This 
seems to make James one of the original Twelve. The passages alleged 
against this view are easily interpreted in accordance with it. My own 
opinion is in favor of the identity of James of Jerusalem with James the son of 
Alphaeus. 



14 History of the Church. 

By the election of these officers, the Apostles had been enabled 
to give themselves more fully to the ministry of the Word. 
Others, who had the gift of utterance, followed their example. 
Multitudes were converted, and among them a great company of 
second priests. 5 It seemed a second Pentecost. Old things 

were rapidly passing away, all things were in process 
of renewal. Conscious of the progress of this mighty change, 
and endowed to an extraordinary degree with prophetic and 
evangelic gifts, Stephen had borne a clear witness to the- fulfil- 
ment of the Mosaic Law in Christ, and had drawn upon himself 
the special indignation of the more zealous pilgrims and so- 
journers. Being brought before the council, he bore the same 
Death of testimony still. He was cast out of the city and 
Stephen. stoned to death; but the mantle of his martyr spirit 
descended invisibly upon a young Benjamite standing by, with 
more than a double portion of his power and boldness. 

The death of Stephen was followed by a general persecution. 

Saul, who knew not as yet his own higher calling, was 

D'spersion . . . . . 

of the particularly active in scattering the nock. The disper- 
sion that ensued, however, only disseminated the more 
widely the seeds of divine truth, and opened a way for the 
Gospel among distant nations. 

Philip, an Evangelist by gift, and one of the seven Deacons 
Philip the by ordination, repaired to Samaria, preached, per- 
Deacon. formed miracles, and baptized a great number of the 
people. Peter and John, hearing of this success, came down 
from Jerusalem, and set their Apostolic seal to the work of 
Philip. They laid their hands on the converts, and gave them 
Simon miraculous gifts. Simon Magus, one of the number, 
Magus. coveted this Apostolic power, and offered money for 
it. Rejected by S. Peter, he became subsequently an apostate, 

5 The first allusion to Presbyters or Elders in the Jerusalem Church, is 
in Acts, xi. 30. As there is every probability that those who had been bred 
in the Judaic ministry became, on their conversion, ministers in the Church, 
we may suppose that Presbyters existed from the time of this conversion of 
"the great company of Priests," if not earlier. 



The Twelve in Jerusalem. 1 5 

and is known in history as the leader of the Gnostic heresy. 
He is still better known for that practical heresy, called simony, 
which has ever since remained " a gall of bitterness, and a bond 
of iniquity," in so many portions of the Church. 
From Samaria, Philip repaired to the desert region nucha/ 
toward Gaza, where he baptized the Eunuch of Queen 
Candace, and so sent a seed of light to the distant land of 
Ethiopia. 

Other disciples, scattered abroad at the same time, were 
equally successful. Some went to Damascus ; where they were 
hardly more than settled, when they learned to their dismay that 
their most eager persecutor, "the Benjamite wolf," other 

was on his way to the city, with authority from the Dtsc & les - 
high-priest to carry them bound to Jerusalem. They soon 
learned to their astonishment, however, that the wolf had been 
converted into a chosen shepherd of the flock. Another party 
repaired to Cyprus, the home of the Levite Barnabas, soon 
to be reckoned among the Apostles. Others fled to Phcenice ; 
and at length, after the lapse of several years, the door to the 
Gentiles having been in the mean time opened by that Apostle 
to whom the keys of the kingdom had been promised, another 
party preached with great success to the Hellenic population of 
Antioch, the head of the province of Syria, and in fact the great 
metropolis of the East. 

But the storm which was thus widely scattering the seeds of 
truth, had long since spent its fury in Jerusalem itself. Toward 
the end of the reign of Tiberius, Pontius Pilate was 

Persecution 

deposed from the government of Judaea; Caiaphas was ceases, 
ejected from the high-priesthood ; and in the suc- 
ceeding reigns of the Emperors Caligula and Claudius, Judaea 
and Samaria were annexed to the presidency of Syria, and all 
Palestine came under the rule of Herod Agrippa. These events 
proved favorable, for a while, to the tranquillity of the Chris- 
tians. The Jews, absorbed in troubles of their own, had little 
time for persecution. A great calm ensued. 6 S. Peter availed 

6 Jarvis, Church of the Redeemed, Period v. ch. vii. 



1 6 History of the Church. 

himself of the opportunity to exercise both his episcopal and 

his evangelic calling ; visiting the churches in Judaea, 

vis u the Galilee, and Samaria, and confirming the disciples 

Churches. r 

in the unity of the Faith. It was in the course of 
these visitations that Cornelius, the devout Roman Soldier, 
was admitted with his household to Baptism ; and so a founda- 
tion was laid for a Gentile Christian Church in the important 
city of Csesarea. 7 

Of other Apostles, at this period, there is no express record. 
The other ^ * s to ^e presumed, however, that most of them 
Apostles. W ere engaged in the same way as S. Peter. Within 
the circle of Jud?ea, and Samaria, and Galilee, there was 
room enough for them all; and while they still met at Jeru- 
salem, as the common centre, they probably saw less of that 
city every year. Before they departed for more distant fields, 
one of the four Gospels, that of S. Matthew, had been 
written. Having had experience of the wants of growing 
Churches, they can hardly be supposed to have parted company 
without some mutual understanding as to creeds, forms of wor- 
ship, rules of discipline, and the like ; though in all such mat- 
ters the mere fact that they had been trained in the same school, 
and for so long a period associated in the same field of labor, 
would be enough, independently of the gift of inspiration, to 
secure a reasonable degree of uniformity in their preaching and 
in their practice. 

And it is for this reason, probably, that in the inspired nar- 
rative of the Acts of the Apostles we have only one 
History line of Apostolic labor followed out with any approach 
to minuteness. Sacred History is averse to idle repe- 
titions. Knowing what one Apostle did under any given cir- 
cumstances, we have a right to take for granted, that all under 
like circumstances followed much the same course. 

From the time of the conversion of the Greeks at Antioch 
there had been a lively and friendly intercourse between the 

7 It is to be noted here, that Jerusalem, Samaria, Csesarea, were the heads 
respectively of the Jewish, Samaritan, and Gentile populations of Palestine. 



Churches of the Gentiles. 1 7 

Christians of that city, and those of the Mother Church. Bar- 
nabas had been sent thither, apparently with Apostolic Mission 
powers ; and had taken with him Saul, whom he found Gentiles, 
in Tarsus. Quite a company of Prophets had fol- AD- 4 °~ 45- 
lowed. In return, the Antiochean Christians, having heard of 
the distress of their brethren in Judaea by reason of a great 
dearth which prevailed about the year forty-three, made a col- 
lection for their relief, and sent it to them by the hand of Bar- 
nabas and Saul. About the same time, Herod Agrippa, the 
king of Palestine, took offence at certain of the Church lead- 
ers ; put James the Elder, the brother of John, to death ; and 
finding this course to be popular with the Jews, cast Peter into 
prison. There were thus two causes at work, to impel the Apos- 
tles forth to their wider field of labor. There was persecution 
at home, and an open door abroad. Such circumstances would 
naturally be regarded as an indication of God's will. Accord- 
ingly, Peter, when miraculously released from his imprisonment, 
went down to Csesarea, the scene of the earliest success among 
the Gentiles, and there for a while abode. Not very long after, 
Barnabas and Saul were sent forth from Antioch on their first 
missionary journey. There is good reason to believe that a 
similar course was at the same time pursued by most, if not all, 
of the Apostles. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CHURCHES OF THE GENTILES — S. PAUL. 

It has already been seen, that the persecution which arose about 
Stephen caused the Gospel to flow out in all directions, and the 
wave continuing to roll on long after the storm had 

° b . The Gospel 

ceased, extended at length as far as the great metropolis flows out, 

A.D. 42. 

of Syria, and resulted in the establishment there of a 
flourishing congregation of Gentile Christians. In the same 



1 8 History of the Clmrch. 

way, it has been noticed incidentally that, some years prior to 
this event, the door had been opened to the Gentiles, in a more 
formal way, by the ministry of S. Peter, in the case of the 
Roman Centurion Cornelius. 

With this first example of Gentile faith, the question of 
immediate admission to the Church by Baptism, or of a pre- 
vious probation by obedience to the Law, naturally 

Gentiles V J > 3 

admitted came up for determination. To S. Peter's mind it 

to Grace. 

was made clear by a special revelation. It was sym- 
bolically shown him that God had cleansed what had hitherto 
been judged unclean. Humanity in its varied types was to be 
regarded henceforward as a new creation ; a clean and docile 
flock, let down, as it were, out of Heaven, and conducted by 
God's own hand to the door of the Ark. 

This pregnant principle, confirmed by the outpouring of 
Principle miraculous gifts upon Cornelius and his house, was 
admitted. ac k n0 wleclged by the Church of Jerusalem, and began 
to be generally apprehended as a settled rule. 

From this time forward also, Caesarea, the home of the 
Ccesarea congregation formed by the household of Cornelius, 
church. became a centre and Mother Church of Gentile 
Christianity. 

The preparation of heart and mind, so remarkably shown 

in this instance, was doubtless going on simultaneously in many 

other parts of the civilized world. In Rome itself 

Gospel 

in other there were Christians at a very early date : and it is 

places. J J 

said that Simon Peter went thither just after the bap- 
tism of Cornelius. 1 It is more probable that the tradition is 
derived from a later visit of the Apostle, or from attributing to 
Peter the acts of some other of the many Simons who were then 
engaged in evangelic labors. In parts of Egypt also, the Gos- 

1 It is more certain, as Dr. Jarvis shows, that the Jews who had been 
banished from Rome under Tiberius, and who were in Jerusalem on the Day 
of Pentecost, were, about this time, allowed to return to the imperial city. 
They, doubtless, carried the Gospel with them. See Church of the Re- 
deemed, Per. V. vii. r. 



Churches of the Gentiles. 1 9 

pel seems to have been proclaimed long before the arrival of 
S. Mark, the founder of the Church in that country. The sect 
of Therapeutae, 2 described by Philo the Jew, has the appearance 
of having been a sort of Jewish Christian Society. Glimpses, 
in short, of a preparatory Pentecostal preaching of the Gospel, 
followed in due time by the more decisive labors of Apostolic 
founders, are discernible in the traditions, or in the customs, of 
many of the early Churches. 

But the time had come at length for that full manifestation 
of the grace of God to the Gentiles, which, as destined More 

to take root in the richest soil of bur humanity, and to ma n(fef/f- 
bear the most varied and abiding fruits, has been chosen Uon ' 

by inspiration as the special historic theme of the first century. 

Saul of Tarsus, 3 the flower of the Jewish schools, a Roman 
by civil rights, a Greek in versatility and force of mind, had 
been converted, baptized, and set apart to the Apostolic office, 
soon after the martyrdom of S. Stephen ; but owing to the 
unripeness of the times for his peculiar work, had been obliged 
to school his fiery zeal for several years in comparatively obscure 
and unimportant fields of labor. From this retirement Barna- 
bas was inspired to call him forth. Being himself a man of 
Prophetic and Apostolic gifts, and being sent by the Mother 
Church in Jerusalem to build up the Greek congregation in the 
great metropolis of Syria, he discerned in Saul a suitable 

2 The fact, that these " citizens of Heaven upon earth," as they called 
themselves, had some peculiarities not wholly Christian, weighs nothing 
against the theory of Eusebius on the subject ; for nothing could be more 
natural than that imperfect imitations of the Pentecostal community in Jeru- 
salem should spring up among Jews in other regions. Apollos, the learned 
'Alexandrian, preached the Gospel, not only before he was baptized, but before 
he was more than partially instructed. Acts xviii. 24-28 ; Euseb. Eccles. 
Hist. ii. 17; Philo Judseus, ii. 470, Ed. Mango (vol. iv. p. 6, Bonn's Ed.). 
With this compare the account of Christian manners in the Epistola ad Diog- 
netum, an extract from which is given in Schaft's History of the Church, 
p. 146. 

3 Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of S. Paul] Paley, Hone 
Paulina. 



20 History of the Church. 

partner of his labors, and invited him accordingly into that 
noble, field. 

In Antioch the two labored together for three years or more. 
Multitudes of Greeks were converted. A new centre and mother 
in Antioch city of Religion was established. And, as if to mark 

believers 

<aiied an epoch in Church History, the term Nazarenes, 

Christians, .. 

a.d. 45 . which the Jews had applied to the followers of Jesus, 
began to be replaced by the more honorable title of Christians. 

About the year forty-five, just after a season of extraordinary 
The two fating and prayer, Antiochean prophets were inspired 
tiT forth ky tne Holy Ghost to "separate Barnabas and Saul " 
a d. 45. for a mission still more fruitful and extensive. 

Being thus sent forth by the Spirit, 4 the Apostles repaired to 
Seleucia, thence to the Island of Cyprus ; which having trav- 
ersed from end to end, preaching in all the synagogues 

Cyprus. 

of the Jews, they at last stood in the presence of the 
Deputy, or Proconsul, Sergius Paulus. 

Here occurred the third of those great "signs" of judg- 
ment, which marked the initiative, as it were, of the three main 
stages of the Church's progress. The Gospel had been 

Elymas. ... 

met by two forms of hypocrisy in the persons of Ana- 
nias the Jew and Simon Magus the Samaritan. Now, in the 
person of Elymas, or Bar-Jesus, it is encountered by the Spirit 
of negation and downright contradiction. The crisis was one of 
vast importance. Over the strong and skeptical but superstitious 
intellect of the Roman world, Sorcery now wielded the sceptre 
which had long since fallen from the palsied hand of Religion. 
To gain a hearing for the Gospel, this baleful power must be 
confronted and disarmed. The contest was easily decided. 
Elymas, fit type of godless intellect, was blinded for a season ; 
and, reduced to a childlike condition, had to look around for 

4 Saul's ordination was by the mouth of the Lord himself: Acts, xxii. 
14, 15, 17-21 ; 2 Cor. xii. The laying on of hands, in Acts, xiii. 1-4, was, 
therefore, not an ordination, but either an extraordinary seal, through Prophets 
specially inspired for the occasion, to the ordination previously given ; or, as 
is more likely, a mere setting apart to missionary labor. 



Churches of the Gentiles. 2 1 

some one to guide him. Sergius Paulus believed. And Saul, 
henceforward called Paul in memory, it is supposed, of this 
great victory, departed shortly after from Paphos, and proceeded 
with his company to Perga in Parnphylia. 

Thence, the course of the Apostles may be briefly described, 
as, first, a journey forward to preach the Gospel, and baptize ; 
and then a return on the same line, with a careful 

Course 

visitation of all the evangelized towns and cities, to of the 

° Apostles. 

confirm the disciples, to ordain Presbyters; in short, 
to organize local Churches — a work uniformly accompanied by 
prayer and fasting. To account for the rapidity with which the 
establishment of local ministries was accomplished, we must 
suppose not only great zeal and self-devotion on the part of the 
new converts, but a large outpouring of supernatural gifts. In 
many cases, fit men were pointed out by the spirit of prophecy. 
Timothy, a young convert, thus designated by prophecies going 
before, 5 was selected for a higher and larger ministry in the 
Church; and after S. Paul's next visit to that region, accom- 
panied him constantly as a chosen disciple and companion. 

Having returned to the Hellenist mother city, the Apostles 
cheered all hearts with the tidings that the door of Return to 
faith had been effectually opened to the Gentile world. a.^. 4 8.' 
This door, however, was near being closed again by the perverse 
dogmatism of certain Judaizing Christians. 

It was the same question that had already been settled in the 
case of Cornelius ; coming up, however, in a somewhat modified 
shape. Judaism had been removed, as it were, from the vesti- 
bule of the Gospel : it was now endeavoring to find 

i r- i • 1 Tt- • Question. 

itself a place in the very sanctuary. It not circum- with the 
cised before admission to God's grace, should not the 
Gentiles at least be circumcised after ? Should not obedience 
to the Law be one of the fruits of the grace vouchsafed by the 
Gospel ? The question was not one of ceremonial merely. It 
involved the completeness of the Church in Christ the Head. 
It involved by implication the divinity and absolute sovereignty 

s 1 Tim. i. 18. 



2 2 History of the Church. 

of Christ the Head. To put the Law on a level with Grace, 
would be, in effect, to put Moses the servant on a level with 
Christ the Son. 6 The strong bias that existed in the Jewish mind 
towards this form of heresy, made it the more necessary that 
the real position of the Church should be clearly and conclu- 
sively defined. 

The question was finally settled in a council of the Apostles, 
with the Elders and Brethren of the Mother Church in Jerusa- 
Settiedin ^ em - One P omt of natural law, almost forgotten by the 
Jerusalem nea then, and three ancient precepts 7 of the Noachic 
a.d. 5 oor 5 2. covenant, were reenacted. Beyond this, no legal bur- 
den was allowed to be imposed upon Gentile Christians. It 
doubtless added weight to this decree, that it had been drawn 
up by James, whose name had been unwarrantably used by the 
Judaizers, and who held a high place in the Church as the Bishop, 
or Apostle, of the Circumcision. 

By this important act, the Church was absolved from the 
bands of the Law, and Christianity was declared complete in 
The church itself. Salvation was a gift intended for all men. It 
f ree - was to be given freely to all who had faith to receive it. 

The Law could add nothing to it : the absence of the Law could 
detract nothing from it. The Tree of Life had taken root below 
the crust of Judaism ; and whatever leaves it might afterwards 
put forth in the shape of needful forms, or canons, would draw 
their nourishment, not from any national or sectional source, 
but as it were from the Catholic soil of redeemed and sanctified 
humanity. 

This point settled, the Apostle of the Gentiles could proceed 
5. Paul's unembarrassed in his mighty labors. The course pur- 
course. sued in his first journey he continued, so far as we can 
learn, to the end of his life. To visit the Churches already 

6 Heb. iii. 5, 6; Col. ii. 10. 

7 Acts, xv. 29. Whether these three precepts were intended to be per- 
manently binding may be doubted : that they were not rigidly enforced, is 
certain, from Rom. xiv. 14; I Cor. x. 25, etc. On this point see Hinds's 
Hist, of Chr. Ck., part ii. ch. iv. 



Churches of the Gentiles. 2 



o 



founded ; to write, or send messengers, to them ; to add new 
fields of labor by missionary journeys into parts unappropriated 
as yet by other Apostles ; to repair occasionally to Jerusalem, or 
Antioch, on errands of charity, friendship, or devotion; and, 
finally, to concentrate his efforts by residences of two or three 
years in the great world-centres, the ganglions, as it were, of the 
social system ; these, with sufferings, toils, successes, unparal- 
leled in the history of human labor, are the sum of that wonder- 
ful life, so simply and yet so graphically portrayed in the living 
narrative of the Acts. 

In the Apostle's second journey, the design of which was to 
"visit the brethren in every city where he had preached s. Paurs 

- sccotzd 

the word of God," having separated from Barnabas on journey: 
account of a dissension with regard to Mark, he took a.d? 50^53! 
Silas with him, and went through Syria and Cilicia, suas. 

confirming the Churches. At Lystra he added Timothy Timothy. 
to his company. Thence passing through Phrygia and Galatia, 
he naturally looked towards Ephesus, the great and enlightened 
centre of Asia Proper. But, diverted from that field by a special 
admonition of the Holy Ghost, he crossed over to Macedonia ; 
preached the Gospel in Philippi, Thessalonica, and other chief 
cities ; left Timothy and Silas to go on with the work ; spent a 
short time in Athens ; and finally took up his abode in 
Corinth, and made of it another great centre of Chris- 
tian influence. There S. Paul remained, pouring out his whole 
heart to the most eager, susceptible, and inquisitive of all people, 
for more than eighteen months. From that conspicuous and 
cosmopolitan position, he kept an eye upon the Churches which 
he and his companions had established in Macedonia, Achaia, 
and the parts adjacent. Here, also, he began another fruitful 
branch of his labors, by writing two Epistles to the brethren in 
Thessalonica. 

After a visit of devotion to Jerusalem and Antioch, he 
began his third journey by revisiting the Churches of Ephesus, 
Galatia and Phrygia in order, and confirming the Dis- A,D- 54 ~ 58- 
ciples. Then proceeding to Ephesus, another of those places 



24 History of the Church. 

where all tides met, he spread his nets there for three years or 
more, drawing within the circle of his influence all the chief 
towns of Asia Proper. This city was a great resort of the pro- 
fessors of diabolical arts. In combating these forms of " spirit- 
ual wickedness in high places," the Apostle seems to have drawn 
more largely upon supernatural resources, than in any other 
field of his labors. Driven at length from Ephesus, he made an 
extensive visitation of the Churches in Macedonia and Achaia. 
Towards But a mysterious impulse from the Spirit turned his 
Jerusalem. f ace once more towards Jerusalem, with an expectation 
of finding a way opened thence to Spain, through Italy and 
Rome ; to the Christians of which latter city he wrote the most 
elaborate of his Epistles. 8 On his way he touched at many 
places ; among others at Miletus, where he met the Ephesian 
pastors, and gave them a solemn charge. At every place where 
he touched, he received new warnings of the bonds and afflic- 
tions that awaited him in Jerusalem. 

Having arrived at the Jewish capital, he was received with 
great kindness by James, and found the Church there in a 
highly flourishing condition. But a sedition was stirred up 
against him among the fanatical Jews. Rescued from their 
violence by the Roman officers, he spent: two years a prisoner 
Casarea* m Caesarea; whence, having appealed to Caesar, he 
a.d. 58-60. was fi na iiy sen t t Rome, " an ambassador in bonds." 
In this greatest of world-centres, which had been for a long 
R ome time the goal of his earnest aspirations, he taught with 

a.d. 60-63. mucn freedom for two years or more, seeing the little 
flock grow into "a great multitude," as the heathen historian 9 
implies, and maintaining a constant communication, by letter 10 
and by Apostolic messengers, with the Churches of the vast field 
in which he and his companions had labored. For it is to be 
observed, that S. Paul's "company" had received continual 
accessions; and where he could not be present in person to 

8 During this period were written the Epistles to the Corinthians, the 
Galatians, the Romans. 9 Taciti, Annal. xv. 44. 

10 Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Philemon, Hebrews, Colossians. 



Churches of the Gentiles. 25 

superintend the Churches, he had reliable men at hand whom 
he could send in his place. 

That the hope so confidently expressed in the Epistles to 
Philemon and the Hebrews" was in due time fulfilled ; that the 
Apostle, set at liberty, revisited once more the field of his 
mighty labors, making permanent provision for the supreme 
government of the Churches; and that, fired with his old mis- 
sionary zeal, he set his face towards the remote West, spain, 
visiting Spain 12 as he had long intended, and, as tradi- Britain, 
tion says, Gaul and the British Isles ; all this has been A,D- 63 ~ 67- 
commonly believed in the Church, and harmonizes entirely with 
the few intimations that can be gathered from the pages of Holy 
Writ. 

But, in the meantime, the world, governed by a mad tyrant, 
was falling into one of its epidemics of periodical frenzy. 
The Jews, at no time remarkable for their patience Nero. 

\ wider the Roman yoke, had been galled into rebel- General 

PpfSBC Zit ZO ft 

lion; the heathen were in a state of terrible excite- a. d. 64-67.' 
ment ; and the hostility to the Gospel, which had never more 
thin partially relaxed, and which caused Christianity to be every- 
where spoken against, had been fanned into a fierce and almost 
universal hatred. The Christians were accused of the most 
atrocious crimes. Their religion was regarded as a baleful 
superstition. The tyrant Nero, strongly suspected of having 
set fire to Rome for his private entertainment, determined to 
divert suspicion from himself by turning its full force against 
the hated sect. The usual course, in such cases, was to extort 
confessions by the rack. "At first," says the heathen 
historian, 13 " some were seized who plead guilty; after- 
wards, on their testimony, a great multitude were convicted, not 

11 Phil. 22; Heb. xiii. 19-23. It was probably after his release that he 
wrote the Epistle to Titus, and the first to Timothy. Neander, Planting of 
Christianity, iii. 10, argues ably for a second imprisonment. Dr. Schaff, 
Apottolic Church, makes an elaborate argument against it, but in his later 
work seems to admit it as at least explaining certain difficulties in the New 
Testament. I2 Rom. xv. 24-28. *3 Tacit. Annal. xv. 44. 

2 



2 6 History of the Church. 

of incendiarism, but of enmity to mankind. To tortures mock- 
ery was added. The victims were sewed up in the skins of 
beasts, thrown to dogs, hung on crosses, or smeared with 
pitch and set on fire, to light the streets by night." Nero 
revelled in such scenes ; and as he opened his gardens for the 
hideous entertainment, looking on with unrestrained delight, or 
drove about the city in the garb of a charioteer, his lineaments 
stamped themselves upon the Christian mind as the very image 
of Antichrist. The persecution became general, and raged till 
the death of Nero, about four years. The Christians of that 
period, however, were too much disturbed and scattered, and 
perhaps too confident in their expectations of the approaching 
end of all things, to chronicle their own sufferings. Beyond 
the brief and hostile accounts of Tacitus, no unquestioned 
record of the persecution remains. Its horrors are to be inferred 
from the deep tinge they left upon legendary tradition. 

S. Paul returned to Rome while the persecution was still 

raging, probably not long before the tyrant's death; and there, 

in company with S. Peter, bore his last witness to the 

Martyrdom . _ ... . . 

o/ s.Paui, Iruth. Being a Roman citizen, he was put to death 
with the sword. His second Epistle to Timothy, writ- 
ten in prison when he was ready and willing to be offered, and 
alluding to his position, though without a word of complaint 
against the monster from whose cruelty he suffered, has, in view 
of the evil times coming upon the Church, a tone of sadness in 
it ; but, with regard to his own calling, is a wonderful testimony 
to posterity of the spirit in which the last trial was looked for- 
ward to and encountered. It is probable, from the same Epistle, 
christians tnat a ^ n * s companions were not equally courageous. 
timid. Christians, as a body, had little of that spirit which 

flies into the face of death. They were, in fact, a timid flock. 
In every persecution their first impulse was to flee. Equally 
removed from the high-wrought fanaticism which nerved the 
Jews of that period, and from the stoic indifference which made 
the heathen scoff at danger, their courage was merely that of a 
good conscience and good hope ; and when taken at unawares 



Position of S. Paul and his Company. 2 7 

was often found deficient. It had this merit, however, that 
though it could flee, it could not yield. Simon Peter, it is said, 
showed some signs of his original infirmity almost to the last 
moment. He was fleeing from Rome when the Lord met him 
and turned him back. But S. Paul was naturally of a different 
temperament. His splendid genius was sustained by a tense and 
uncompromising spirit, ever on the alert, never taken lc fault, 
keen, fiery, and almost fierce in its rapidity of movement, which 
caused the name of the Benjamite wolf 14 to cleave to him in a 
complimentary sense, when in some respects it seemed singularly 
inappropriate to his character. These being the natural traits 
of the Apostle, the quiet, familiar, almost business-like tone of 
the last of his Epistles is the more remarkable. 



CHAPTER V. 

POSITION OF S. PAUL AND HIS COMPANY. 

S. Paul thus labored, seemingly a supernumerary, one " last 
and least," "born out of due time," and "separate from his 
brethren " of the original Apostolic College : yet, sur- s. Paul the 
passing them all in the variety, extent, and success of ty itfargld 
his labors, he became in reality " the fruitful bough " Ministry. 
of the Apostolate, the representative of the Ministry as enlarged 
to meet the wants of the Gentile Churches. He is the type of 
that second Apostolate that sprang up, when the rod of the 

^"Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf," etc., Gen. xlix. 27. It is probable, 
however, that the phrase was always understood in a good sense ; for to the 
old religious mind all of God's creatures had something beautiful and good in 
them, and the serpent, lion, eagle, wolf, etc., were as often symbols of good 
as of evil. In this respect, the modern mind is less genial than the ancient, 
more apt to look at the eagle's claws than at his heaven-piercing eye. 



28 History of the Church. 

ministry "budded" with new life: when God gave the word, 
and a great company of Preachers went forth to all the borders 
of the earth. 

When our Lord chose the Twelve from among those "disci- 
ples," who had been with Him in His ministry, His first refer- 
ence would seem to have been to the twelve tribes, and 
Fou7idation- to the Theocracy as the type of the perpetual Divine 

Stones 

government of the Church. That the foundation 
might be laid distinctly in that people with which the everlast- 
ing covenant had been made, He gave the first formal commis- 
sion to Twelve, and Twelve only. Hence the solicitude of the 
Typical Eleven to supply the place of Judas. 1 For the sake of 
consistency. ^ypi ca i consistency there must be twelve to receive the 
great gift of the Spirit. In the new Pentecost, as in the old, the 
tribes must all be represented. As a four-squared city, with 
twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve foundation-stones, the new 
Jerusalem is let down out of Heaven, and begins to shed her 
light upon the nations of them that are saved. 2 

But the historic continuity of the old Church and new being 
thus most fully and symmetrically expressed, in the organizing 
of the original Apostolic College, in the preaching of the Gos- 
pel for so many years to the Jews almost exclusively, and after- 
wards in making the first offer 3 of salvation to them in all places 
The Seventy where they were found, there was no longer any need 
^heTu/fr- °f strict adherence to the typical arrangement. The 
structure. f ru itful bough was to run over the wall of Judaic con- 
cisionism. The "Twelve" were to expand into the "Sev- 
enty." 4 Accordingly, as soon as the Church had found an 

1 It is to be noticed that Judas fell before the Apostolic commission was 
formally given. He was never, therefore, an Apostle in the full sense of the 
word. 

2 Rev. xxi. 10-27. 

3 This course was followed even by the. " Apostles to the Gentiles." 

4 This number naturally leads one to such texts as Exod. i. 5 ; xv. 27 ; 
Numb. xi. 16; xxiv. 25; Ezek. viii. 11 : that is, to the Seventy heads of fam- 
ilies, prophets, elders, who were called to participate in the ministry of Moses. 
The first reference, therefore, of the Seventy, as of the Twelve, is to the 



Position of S. Paul ajtd his Company. 29 

open door for its larger mission, and had begun to go forth 
beyond the bounds of Israel proper, the number of Apostles 
was indefinitely increased. 

With this multiplication of the chief ministry the name of 
S. Paul is particularly connected. His call to the Apostolate 
synchronized with that outgoing of Church life and Sm p au r s 
shedding of the Spirit upon the Gentiles, that second &******. 
Pentecost, as it were, which followed the martyrdom of S. 
Stephen : 5 his actual commencement of mission work with the 
gathering of a Hellenic Church in Antioch, and with the de- 
parture, one by one, of the Apostles to their more distant fields. 
His name (with that of Barnabas, and many others) is thus asso- 
ciated with the outermost of the three great circles of the Apos- 
tolic mission. With Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, he had little 
to do. His witness was to the world. Among those twelve 
"names," which S. John represents as written on the "twelve 
foundations" of the "great city," his name is not included. 

Mosaic dispensation. But behind all these passages there are the Seventy 
families of the nations, among whom the whole earth was divided : Gen. x. ; 
in which chapter, again, we find not only the seventy names, representative 
of the nations, but twelve particularly distinguished as fathers or fotmders ; 
so that in the twelve, as well as in the seventy, there seems to be an ultimate 
reference to the Church universal. This is confirmed by Rev. iv. 4, where 
twenty-four Elders are round about the throne; viz., twelve for the Jewish 
and twelve for the Gentile Church. I may here observe, that when numbers 
are used in SS. for symbolic purposes, we are not to regard them always as 
mathematically correct. Thus, in Matt. i. the fourteen generations are not all 
the generations that might be counted in the period given. So the seventy 
and the twelve were not all the Disciples of our Lord; for in Acts, i. 15, we 
find the number of the names to be about one hundred and twenty. The 
same may be said of the list of names in Gen. x. On the whole, it seems to 
me that in choosing twelve and seventy under the general name of Disciples, 
our Lord provided for a subsequent enlargement of the Apostolate, and 
guarded against the mistake of those who would superstitiously confine the 
office to the exact number of twelve ; or, who would make any other distinc- 
tion than that of mere priority of commission, between the original Apostolic 
College and those who in course of time were added to it. 

5 This, according to Dr. Jarvis, was the end of the seventy weeks of 
Daniel. See Church of the Redeemed, Period V. pp. 247, 497. 



30 History of the Church. 

It is of great importance, therefore, that S. Paul, as the type 
of the enlarged Apostolate, was in point of commission, of au- 
thority, and in everything, in fact, except priority of calling, 
Equal to the fully equal to "them which were Apostles before" 
him ; that "the uncircumcision was committed" to 
him as largely "as the circumcision was unto Peter"; that 
"James, Cephas, and John," those universally acknowledged 
"pillars," perceived the grace given unto him, and extended 
to him and Barnabas "the right-hand of fellowship." The 
Ministry to the Gentiles was thus put on a footing of entire 
equality with the original Ministry to the Jews. The branches 
grafted into the old stock of Israel received all the power and 
virtue of the stock itself. 

Of that numerous band of sons, disciples, colleagues, or fel- 
Companions low-laborers, who accompanied S. Paul in his travels, 
of . Paul. an( j some f w hose names are associated with his, 
apparently on equal terms, in the superscription of the Epistles, 
Barnabas parted from him in the second missionary journey, 
and taking Mark with him, labored afterwards in Cy- 

Barnabas. 

prus, his native country. So long as the two remained 
together, Barnabas held the position of leader ; so that the 
heathen distinguished them respectively as Jupiter and Mercu- 
rius. He seems to have been a man of great suavity and dig- 
nity of character, and we may infer from his conduct with 
regard to Mark, that in his proper sphere as a "son of consola- 
tion" he showed no little firmness. It is interesting to notice 
that all the intimates of S. Paul, so far as we have the means of 
judging, were distinguished by traits of character the comple- 
mentary opposites of his own. 

Timothy, a disciple or son, and, as he appears in many 
places, a colleague of S. Paul, had a feminine delicacy, amount- 
ing it would seem to something like natural timidity 6 

Timothy. - _, ., . . . 

of character. But the grace of God, in his case as in 
that of other Apostles, proved superior to any such infirmity ; 
and S. Paul regarded him with peculiar and tender affection. 

6 i Cor. xvi. io; 2 Tim. i. 6-8. 



Position of S. Paul and his Company, 3 1 

During the lifetime of S. Paul, he had frequent occasion to ex- 
ercise temporarily, in various places to which he was sent, the 
gift and authority of an Apostle. 7 After his death, he became, 
according to the unanimous testimony of the ancients, the 
settled Bishop of Ephesus in Asia Minor ; a post for which 
his gentleness and refinement of character seem emi- 
nently to have fitted him. Titus, in like manner, is 
said to have become the permanent chief-pastor of the Church 
in Crete. Silas, or Silvanus, and Sosthenes were also suas, and 
reckoned among Apostles, their names, like that of others. 
Timothy, being associated with S. Paul's in letters to the 
Churches ; but of their position in later times there is no cer- 
tain record. The same remark applies to Epaphras, Epaphro- 
ditus, Tychicus, Onesimus, Carpus, Erastus, Crescens, and 
many others to whom tradition assigns the name "Apostle and 
Bishop," and sometimes "Martyr." But tradition is a sieve, 
which seldom preserves more than the husks of a life. The 
name and office, and sometimes the field of labor, may remain : 
the deeds, the words, the finer traits of character, almost inva- 
riably escape. 8 

S. Luke is one of the few companions of S. Paul to whom 
tradition does not appear to have assigned a particular local 
charge. He lived, it is said, to a great age. He was 
with S. Paul in his last imprisonment ; and from the 
peculiar summary of trials in the third chapter of the Second 
Epistle to Timothy, as compared with the account of the first 
missionary journey related in the Acts, 9 one might conjecture 
that the Apostle, when he wrote, had been quite recently en- 
gaged in recounting to the Evangelist that early portion of his 
history. Death may have intervened before he came to the 
period of his more recent labors, after the first imprisonment in 

7 Rom. xvi. 21 ; 2 Cor. i. 19; Phil. ii. 19; I Thess. iii. 2. 

8 Tillemont, Memoires pour servir a T Histoire Ecclesiastique, gives with 
discrimination, but not in a skeptical spirit, all that is known on this and sim- 
ilar subjects. 

9 Tim. iii. 11 ; Acts, xiv. 



32 History of the Church. 

Rome : and as S. Luke wrote only what he had seen himself, or 
had received from eye-witnesses, 10 the abrupt conclusion of the 
Acts may be thus accounted for. 

John Mark, frequently confounded with S. Mark the Evan- 
gelist, was probably the same whom S. Paul commends to the 
Colossians 11 as a nephew of S. Barnabas ; who was 

John Mark. l ' 

with the same Apostle in Rome, during his first im- 
prisonment, as a fellow-laborer ; and whose services he particu- 
larly desired at a later period. 12 If so, it is a pleasing reflection 
that the young man who abandoned the two Apostles w. their 
first missionary journey, and was the occasion of a fierce con- 
tention in the second, afterwards was enabled so amply to 
redeem his character. 

These, and many others, some of whose names an. preserved 
only in obscure traditions, constituted the company of S. Paul : 
his Apostolic staff, as it were, by whose active cooperation, as 

Apostles or Messengers of the Churches, he was en- 

His Helpers * & . ' 

and Sue- abled to maintain a constant and vigilant superintend- 

cessors. 

ence of the vas-t and growing field of his planting. 
Among these also he found the trustworthy men to whom he 
could commit the whole burden of his own "care of the 
Churches," when he was obliged to leave it. 

10 Luke, i. 2. " Coloss. iv. io. " Philem. 24; 2 Tim. iv. II. 



Mission of the Twelve. $3 



CHAPTER VI. 

MISSION OF THE TWELVE. MADNESS OF JEWS AND HEATHEN. 

Of the labors of the Twelve in the wider field of their mission, 
the records are surprisingly scant, and the traditions unsatisfac- 
tory. Three only of their number received surnames The 
from the Lord ; and, with the exception of these three, T -^ive. 
their names are written only on the Judaic foundation-stones. 
Indeed, one of this smaller number, S. James, sur- Sm j ames 
named the Greater, the elder brother of S. John, was theGreater - 
taken to his rest by martyrdom 1 before the Gentile superstructure 
was generally begun. 

S. Andrew, the first called of the Apostles, in whom we 
recognize the amiable traits of his brother Simon without the 
fervid genius of that great Apostle, is said to have 

S. A ndrew. 

preached in Scythia and Sogdiana, and was crucified in 
Greece. The letter describing his death, professedly written by 
the Presbyters and Deacons of Achaia, is either spurious or 
grossly interpolated. 

The name of S. Thomas is associated with the memory of 
evangelical labors in Parthia, Persia, and India; though the 
application of the last of these names is somewhat 

S. Thomas. 

doubtful. S. James the Less, the son of Alphseus, has 
been commonly identified by Latin writers with James the Just, 
the first Bishop of Jerusalem. If not thus identified, s . james 
it is quite uncertain where he labored. S. Jude, sur- '** Less ' 
named Thaddaeus, or Lebbseus, the brother of James, journeyed 
to Lybia, it is said, and preached also in Arabia, 

_ , t , _ . . , S. Jude. 

Idumsea, and Mesopotamia. He is not to be con- 
founded with another Thaddaeus, one of the Seventy, who in 

1 Acts, xii. 2. 



2 



* 



54 History of the Church. 

fulfilment of a promise said to have been made by our Lord to 

Abgar, 2 King of Edessa, went as Apostle to that city, and 

labored there with great honor and success. S. Philip, 

S. Philip. to L 

frequently confounded with Philip, one of the seven 
Deacons, preached in Scythia and Phrygia. S. Bartholomew 
00 _ went to Armenia and India ; S. Matthew and S. 

oJ>. Bar- J 

thoiomew, Matthias to Ethiopia: S. Simon, the Chananite, to 
Matthias, some part of Mesopotamia. The name Simon, how- 

and Si 7110 n. 

ever, was so common among the Pentecostal preachers, 
that the two Apostles so named had many things accredited to 
them in tradition which in all probability belonged to other 
evangelists. 

It has been generally believed that the majority of the Apos- 
tles, and, perhaps, all of them except S. John, suffered death by 
Causes of martyrdom. 3 This is admitted to have been the case 
oppoi . wifa f our out f j-^g fi ve wnose history is best known. 

One thing is certain, that wherever the first preachers went they 
carried their lives in their hands. Without judging harshly of 
the Roman laws, which, considering the general character of the 
superstitions they were aimed at, 4 were sufficiently tolerant, the 
Gospel was in its very nature a martyrium : a testimony unto 
death, before magistrates, kings, and nations, against all that 
was held sacred by the bulk of the heathen world. Had it been 
content to take a place among the crowd of national or local 
superstitions, it would probably have continued unmolested. 
But such a position was against its very nature. It came before 
men as a novelty, which provoked contempt ; it was uncompro- 
mising, which awakened hatred ; it was wonderfully successful, 

2 Euseb. i. 13. The Letter of our Lord, preserved in the archives of 
Edessa, is supported by respectable testimony, but does not look genuine. It 
may, however, have been a verbal answer from our Lord, committed to 
writing from memory by some of the King's ministers. See also Evagrius, 
Eccl. Hist. iv. 27. 

3 Mosheim's argument to the contrary is founded on a very partial inter- 
pretation of a passage from Clement of Alexandria, and from Polycrates of 
Ephesus. 

4 Sacra peregrin a. 



Mission of the Twelve. 35 

which touched the innumerable nerves of self-interest, local or 
sect pride, prejudice, superstition, and the like, which lie thick 
beneath the surface of civilized society. The Jews resented it 
as a heresy. The heathen looked upon it with suspicion, or 
contempt, as a corruption of Judaism. To men of the world, 
generally, its condemnation of tolerated sins and its bold pre- 
dictions of righteous judgment would present themselves in the 
light of odium generis humani : a gloomy antagonism to the 
reckless and jovial spirit of cultivated society. 

All this is plain enough from that portion of Church history 
recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. In those simple narra- 
tives we see the rancor of the Jews awakened, not in Accumuia- 
Palestine only, but in every place of their dispersion, tlve f° rce - 
at the first indications of prosperity on the part of the Gospel, 
kindling into more furious hostility as the signs of success 
increased, and communicating itself like a sort of contagious 
frenzy to the better disposed Gentiles. But at the point where 
the inspired history ends, the state of the world is growing 
worse daily. The causes of persecution, whether in the Jewish 
or heathen world, were rapidly accumulating in overwhelming 
force. 

From the reign of the Emperor Tiberius till the destruction 
of the Holy City, the Jews were becoming constantly more 
entangled in seditions, tumults, plots, and insurrec- Madness of 
tionary movements. They had chosen Barabbas in- the 7 ews - 
stead of Christ ; and every Barabbas who offered himself to 
them was hailed as a Messiah. The wanton tyranny of Caligula 
exasperated this spirit, by placing the abomination of idols in 
Jewish houses of worship. Hence riots and massacres, both 
in Egypt and Palestine. 5 The reign of Claudius, Caligula's 
successor, was marked by similar commotions ; and in a dis- 
turbance that took place in Jerusalem, during the week of the 
Passover, more than twenty thousand persons are said 
to have been slain, or trampled to death. A famine 
of several years added to the sufferings of this period. When 
5 Ph:lo in Flacc, etc. ; Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 8. 



36 History of the Church. 

Nero came to the throne, the sacred city and the whole of Pal- 
estine had fallen a prey to fanatical sects ; and robber bands and 
assassins flourished under the guise of patriotism and religion. A 
glimpse is afforded us of this state of things, and of its effect upon 
the security of the Christians, in the account, given us in the 
Acts, of S. Paul's eventful visit to the sacred city of his people. 
Not long after, similar tumults arising, James of Jerusalem was 
put to death. This, again, was followed soon by the 

A.D. 65. . 

commencement of the Judaic war ; in consequence of 
which, according to the testimony of Josephus, 6 a fearful com- 
motion seized upon the populace throughout all Syria, and 
everywhere the inhabitants of the cities destroyed the Jews 
without mercy, so that the streets were strewn with unburied 
and naked corpses. 

It was a time, in fact, of universal madness and misrule. 
of the Nero's tyranny was succeeded by the wilder, and still 
Heathen. more bloody anarchy of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. 
The page of the philosophic historian of the Romans is as black 

as that of the learned Tew, with the tragic record of 

A.D. 68-70. J / . 

treasons, plots, conspiracies, portents m the natural 
and civil world, horrible massacres, and a recklessness of human 
life passing all imagination. In Rome, where civil war was 
raging from street to street, the mob looked on and applauded, 
as at a gladiator show. "If any one hid in a house or shop, 
they shouted to the soldiers to drag him out, and slay him." 
For, as the historian 7 fearfully adds, " the military were so intent 
on carnage, that the greater part of the booty fell to the popu- 
lace. There were all the horrors of a city taken by 

Rome. . J J 

storm, with all the merriment and licentiousness of the 
» most luxurious times of peace : battles and piles of corpses ; 
eating-houses and baths ; soldiers with bloody swords, harlots in 
flaunting dresses : all was so mixed up, that it would be difficult 
to say whether the city was in a fury, or on a frolic." Nor did 
the rural districts of Italy escape the common woe. "Every- 

6 Quoted by Euseb. Eccl. Hist. ii. 26. 7 Tacit. Hist. iii. 83. 



Mission of the Twelve. 3 7 

where there were rapes, robbery, and bloodshed ; citizens dressed 
themselves as soldiers to assassinate their enemies ; the 

Italy. 

soldiers seized everything they could lay hands on, 
without rebuke from their superiors. Italy was not merely 
exhausted, it was fairly trampled into ruin by the wantonness 
of foot and horse." 8 To add to the terrors of the times, the 
popular mind was haunted with prodigies and omens, prodigies 
"In the vestibule of the Capitol, Victory dropped her »«*Om*u. 
chariot-reins ; from a cell of Juno's temple there came forth a 
gigantic spectre; on a serene and cloudless day, the statue of 
the Emperor Julius turned round and faced the East ; an ox in 
Etruria opened its mouth and spake." Such stories, little 
heeded in times of peace, but at this period readily believed 
and circulated, show at least the state of the public mind. It 
was more remarkable, that real disasters, such as an unprece- 
dented overflow of the Tiber, followed by a general famine, 
made less impression as calamities than as omens. 9 Every afflic- 
tion cast a shadow still blacker than itself. 

Under these circumstances, the fearful picture, drawn by the 
Jewish historian, of the horrors, portents, and calamities of his 
country, may be taken as a sample of the condition of General 
the whole world. " No generation from the beginning Calamtties - 
of the world was more fruitful in wickedness. The misfortunes 
of the Jews were such, that the calamities of all men from the 
beginning of the world would be found slight in comparison 
with them." It was Gessius Florus, appointed Pro- Gessius 
curator in the tenth year of Nero, who by his cruelty 
and rapacity provoked them to rebellion against the Roman 
arms. The heathen of -the various cities in which the Jews 
dwelt were encouraged to insult and harass them ; and when 
outrages of this kind had excited them to insurrection, they 
were massacred in crowds, without pity or remorse. In this 
way thousands suffered in Ascalon, Csesarea, Ptolemais, and in 
the cities of Syria and Egypt. Cestius Gallus, the governor of 
Syria, might have prevented the rebellion by measures of ordi- 
8 Tacit. Hist. ii. 56. 9 Tacit. Hist. i. 86. 



38 History of the Church. 

nary prudence and justice ; or when it began might easily have 
crushed it in the bud. He did neither. His course was vigor- 
ous enough to increase the exasperation, but too dilatory to lead 
'mrst t° any result. A feeble attempt to take Jerusalem was 

Jerusalem, followed by a precipitate retreat, which degenerated 
a.d. 5 . j nto a flight anc j a p an i c> The Jews hung upon his 

rear, slew his best troops, and, elated by this easy triumph, 
carried on the war thenceforward in a spirit of desperation that 
hardly fell short of madness. For seven years society was com- 
pletely disorganized. It was a conflict unillumined by a ray of 
hope. Suicide was preferred to submission to the Romans. 
Yet submission to the Romans was felt to be a far less evil than 
the triumph of the robbers and assassins, by whom, for the most 
part, the cause of rebellion was sustained. In short, the proph- 
ecy of our Lord was fulfilled to the letter. 10 Things came to 
such a pass in the end, that unless those days of mutual exter- 
mination had been mercifully shortened, no flesh would have 
been left alive. 

That terrible period, then, which is best described as the 
coming of our Lord in judgment upon the Jews — the sixth in 
The Lord's order of those tremendous epochs which prefigure the 
coming. nna i Judgment" — was a time in which it was not only 
natural that the shepherds of the Flock should be smitten, 
but equally natural that the Flock should be too much dis- 

9 

10 S. Matt. xxiv. 22. The remarkable coincidences, between the proph- 
ecy of our Lord and the language of Josephus in his account of the Judaic 
War, are well pointed out in " the Plain Commentary on the Four Holy Gos- 
pels." 

11 In the xxivth of S. Matthew, etc. The Judgment of Jerusalem, of 
Sodom, of the Flood, etc., all lead the mind forward to the final consumma- 
tion. The six judgments are, the Expulsion from Paradise, the Flood, the 
Destruction of Sodom, the Drowning of Pharaoh, the Ruin of Solomon's 
Temple, and the final destruction of Jerusalem, with the Abrogation of the 
Jewish Polity. For many useful suggestions on this subject see Jarvis's 
Church of the Redeemed. Dr. Jarvis, however, divides the history of the 
world before the Christian era xntofive periods, including the day in Paradise 
in the period which terminates with the flood. 



The Jewish Christian Church. 39 

turbed to keep a careful record of the calamitous visitation. 
Christians were hated by the Jews, and equally hated as con- 
nected with the Jews. They were a ready and safe mark for 
private and public malice. And of the Roman magistrates in 
those days, while some might temporize like Pilate, some like 
Gallic might behave with a disdainful impartiality, and a few 
like Pliny might feel disposed to pity the oppressed : the great 
majority, no doubt, would easily give way to the outcry of the 
rabble. In the confusion that thus ensued, we can find the only 
satisfactory explanation of the vagueness of Church tradition, 
with regard to the latter days of most of the Apostles. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

Jerusalem continued, till the time of the great Judgment upon 
that city, to be the centre of Apostolic conference and com- 
munion ; the centre especially of that Christian Israel 

Jerusalem 

"scattered abroad," which, though absorbed in the and Chris- 

1 1 ci 71 Is ret €l 

one name of Judah, was the Historical continuation 

of all the twelve tribes, 1 and was tolerated in the observance of 

Mosaic rites. 

James, the universally respected head of this great stock, 
was eminently fitted for his peculiar and difficult position. He 
is said to have been consecrated to God from his jamesthe 
birth, after the manner of the ancient Nazarites, and 
to have lived the life of a genuine ascetic. Foreseeing the 
judgments that were coming on his guilty nation, and wrestling 
continually in prayer for their conversion, he acquired among 

1 James, i. i. 



4-0 History of the Church. 

them the title of Zaddick, the Just, or Ophlias, the Bulwark of 
the People. His appointment to the Bishopric, of Jerusalem is 
attributed by some to our Lord himself. It is certain that he 
was admitted to the honor of a special interview with his Mas- 
ter, after the Resurrection. 2 

As head of the Circumcision, " myriads" of whom had been 
converted before the last visit of S. Paul to Terusalem, 3 

His relet- . J 

tions to he was naturally exposed to the temptation of forming 
a party, or separate school, in the Church. There is 
no proof, however, that he yielded to this temptation. On the 
contrary, his relations to the Apostles of the Gentiles seem ever 
to have been of the most friendly kind. S. Paul evidently re- 
garded him with reverence and affection. James, in his turn, 
not only gave to Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellow- 
ship, but in reference to the questions mooted by the Judaizing 
faction, expressed himself with a firmness and decision 4 not in- 
ferior to that of the great Apostle himself. 

And towards those of his own kin who had not as yet re- 
To his own ceived the Gospel he acted, there is reason to believe, 
People. w Jth a wise and charitable and Christian-like forbear- 
ance. He avoided everything calculated to excite the preju- 
dices of the Jews. Those who visited Jerusalem from among 
the Gentile Churches were required to observe the same rule. 5 

It may have been owing to this habit of noble as well as 
His politic forbearance, that the Epistle of S. James, ad- 

Epistie. dressed as it is to the twelve tribes, and almost ignor- 
ing the difference between Jew and Christian, is so extremely 
reserved on the distinctive doctrines of the Gospel. With the 
Lord nigh at hand, with the Judge standing before the door, 6 
and with a profound fellow-feeling for the difficulties and per- 
plexities of the Jewish mind, the earnest and sober-minded 
Pastor may have felt that the orthodoxy needed for the con- 
version of his countrymen was that of the heart and life, rather 

2 i Cor. xv. 7. 3 Acts, xxi. 20. 4 Acts, xv. 13-21. 

5 Acts, xxi. 17-26. 6 James, v. 7-9. 



The Jewish Christian Church. 41 

than of the head. Of faith, 7 in the form of dogmatism, the 
Synagogue, whether Jewish or Jewish-Christian, had 

" % Christ not 

enough and to spare. The Name of Christ might heard™ 

Strife. 

easily become, like the name of Moses, a mere symbol 
of lip-worship, a mere rallying-cry for the strife of tongues. 
In the bitterness of controversy, " that worthy name " might 
possibly be taken in vain. 8 Rather than incur such a risk, let 
the yea of faith be yea, and the nay simply nay. Christ is not 
confessed by vigorous asseverations. He is not heard in strife. 
In peace the fruits of righteousness are sown. The dew of 
Divine wisdom distils from a tranquil sky. 9 In a community 
occupying so critical a position, standing, as it were, between a 
doomed nation and a Judge near at hand, patience should be 
allowed to have her perfect work. The husbandman waiteth 
for the rain. Job waited for the end, and prayed for the friends 
who vexed him. Elias, a man like other men, a great and fiery 
heart full of passionate aches and yearnings, waited and prayed 
for rain ; and the rain came at his request, and the T j ie p ra yer 
parched earth yielded fruit. Such prayer, such pa- °f Faith - 
tience, might still be found availing. The sinner might yet be 
converted from the error of his ways. 10 With the tenderness, 
then, of that mother, who won her child from the precipice, not 
by warning cries, but by a silent act of instinctive maternal 
love, 11 James yearned for the salvation of all Israel; and in his 
solicitude spoke with bated breath, lest the sharp distinctive word 
might startle them into madness, and so precipitate their ruin. 
Such seems to have been the spirit of Judaic Christianity, 
in its better aspect. It was the religion of intercession ; the 
embodiment of the Divine heart's desire that all Israel The spirit 
should be saved. It was the living continuation of the (£$%£%. 
prayer of Jesus on the Cross. While Gentile Christi- zt ?- 

anity, bold, free, and full of joy, was advancing Joshua-like in 

7 James, ii. 14-26. 8 James, ii. 7; v. 12. 

9 James, iii. 13-18. IO James, v. 7-20. 

11 Greek Anthology, alluded to in Keble's Christian Year — " Commina- 
tion." 



42 History of the Church. 

the line of spiritual aggression, Jerusalem, like Moses, was con- 
tent with an humbler posture. She prayed for the victory which 
freer hands achieved. 

The end of James, as related by the most ancient of Church 
Historians, 12 accords entirely with this view of his character 
and position. 

Advantage was taken of the temporary anarchy that followed 
the death of Festus the Roman governor to stir up 

The end of , ... 

James, a tumult against the Christians. In the midst of the 

A.D. 63. ° 

excitement some of the Sadducees addressed them- 
selves to James. "Tell us," said they, "who is Jesus?" 13 
He answered, "The Saviour." Thereupon many of the Jews 
believed, both among the rulers and among the common people. 
But the Scribes and Pharisees, alarmed at the growing expecta- 
tion of a speedy advent of Jesus in judgment upon their nation, 
determined to appeal to James's conservative and patriotic feel- 
ings. "We entreat thee, restrain the people who are led astray 
after Jesus, as if He were the Messiah!" Then, conducting 
him to a conspicuous place on one of the wings of the Temple, 
they asked him the same question that the Sadducees had put to 
His Con- him before: "O Zaddick, declare to us, What is the 
fusion. door of j esuSj t i ie cruc ifi e( l ! " He answered, " Why 

do ye ask me respecting Jesus the son of Man ? He is now sit- 
ting in the heavens, on the right hand of Power, and is about 
to come on the clouds of Heaven." Thereupon many of the 
people cried out, " Hosanna to the Son of David!" But 
others came behind him, and cast him down from the Temple ; 
and as he raised himself, and knelt, repeating for the last time 

12 Hegesippus : Euseb. ii. 23. 

x 3 Eusebius has it, " What is the door of Jesus ? " A manifest allusion to 
a common Christian phrase, but difficult to reconcile with James's answer. 
Mosheim and others have supposed that Eusebius has mistranslated his 
authority, and various readings are suggested. Without choosing among 
these conjectures, it may be remarked, that the vivid expectation of the Lord's 
coming speedily in judgment, doubtless made such phrases, e. g., " the Judge 
is at the door" more current than usual, and a desire to know the meaning of 
these phrases may have suggested the peculiar form of the question. 



The Jewish Christian Church, 43 

that prayer of his Master, "Father, forgive them, for they 
know not what they do," he was cruelly despatched with clubs 
and stones. 

He died, as he had lived, a patriot saint. The people knew 
this to be his character, and his martyrdom was spoken Honor paid 
of among them as a public calamity. He was buried i0 hl7U ' 
with honor near the Temple, and a pillar marked the place of 
his death. 

The remorse of the Jews was increased by the signs of 
coming wrath which at that time began to thicken Signs f 
around the mother city, and to prepare the minds of J ud s ment - 
the inhabitants for some terrible event. 

It was about this time, for example, that one Jesus, the son 
of Ananias, began to harrow men's souls with that terrible cry 
of Woe, which resounded for so many years through 

Wet y 7t zftp's . 

the streets and along the walls of the devoted city. 
With this were many other signs of a similar description. A 
fiery sword was seen waving in the-air ; embattled hosts appeared 
to be contending in the sky ; the East gate of the Temple swung 
open of itself, and voices were heard crying, let us go hence ! 
In short, men's hearts were failing them for fear, and the popu- 
lar mind was haunted with gloomy presentiments of impending 
judgment. 14 

After the death of James, Symeon, a son of Cleophas and 
a cousin of the Lord, was, for that reason perhaps, elected in 
his place. Down to that time the Jewish Christian successors 
Church, though somewhat degenerated 15 from its °f 7 ames - 
purity and simplicity, had remained, as the ancients expressed 
it, a virgin in the faith. Now the seeds of heresy began to 
spring up. One Thibutis, a disappointed candidate Seeds of 
for the office of Bishop, became the ringleader of a Heres y- 
faction. The bias that existed towards low and fleshly views of 
the nature of the Messiah, the naturally disputatious and ration- 

T 4 Tacitus and Josephus both mention these signs. 

x s The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistle of S. James show that this 
degeneracy had begun. 



44 History of the Church, 

alistic turn of the Jewish mind, the disturbances that would 
necessarily arise from the gradual discontinuance of Mosaic 
rites on the part of the more enlightened, the general madness 
of the times, and last not least, the increasing isolation of 
Judaic Christianity, were so many seeds, as it were, of discord 
and dissension ; so that the spirit of faction having once secured 
an entrance, every sort of error found in the divided nock its 
appropriate prey. 

In the meantime, however, the woes denounced so long be- 
forehand against Jerusalem had come to a head. Seven years 
of rebellion against the Romans, attended with atrocities of 
Jewish every imaginable description, had only exasperated 
war ' the intense hatred with which the foreign yoke was 

regarded. Finally, the city was besieged by Titus, whose father 
Vespasian had been called from the leadership in Judaea to the 
empire of the world ; and after a mad struggle, un- 
taken, paralleled in the history of human wickedness and 

A.D. -jo or 72. 

misery, it was taken and destroyed. The Temple was 
demolished. Such of the inhabitants as survived the horrors of 
the siege were sold for slaves, and scattered once more among 
the nations. 

The Christian Jews alone escaped the common fate. Re- 
membering the predictions and commandment of the Lord, 
they had taken advantage of a lull in the storm of war, just after 
christians the first siege of the city and the repulse of the Roman 
r peUa\ t0 army under Cestius Gallus, 16 and had withdrawn in a 
a.d. 65. body to Pella, a city of Decapolis. There many of 
them remained, continuing the observance of Mosaic rites. 
Others returned, and dwelt, a sad flock, among the ruins of the 
city. In a subsequent persecution under Trajan, Symeon their 
Conver- Bishop received the crown of martyrdom ; and Justus, 
sions. after a factious opposition, was elected in his place. 

About the same time many thousands of the Jews were con- 

16 Josephus mentions, that " after the calamity of Cestius, many of the 
most illustrious Jews departed from the city as from a sinking ship." Jos. De 
Bell, Judaic. 



The Jeivish Christian Church. 45 

verted. The terror and the ruin which dogged them everywhere, 
must have added force in the minds of the more devout, to the 
arguments and claims of Christianity. 

Justus died early in the second century, and was followed by 
a rapid succession of twelve Bishops, whose brief episcopates 
have led to the supposition of a violent persecution Jewish 
during that period. It may have been, that in choos- " ups ' 
ing their chief pastors the Jewish Christians attached an undue 
importance to age, and to fleshly connection with the house of 
David. Their spiritual rulers, therefore, were in all probability 
more venerable than efficient. 

In fact, Judaic Christianity had already accomplished its 
mission in the world. Its peculiar rites, tolerated by the Apos- 
tles on the principle that "what decayeth and waxeth 

x ± J Mission of 

old is ready to vanish aiuay" had lost all warrant for Judaism 

ended. 

their continuance from the time that the Divine judg- 
ment had gone forth against Jerusalem and the Temple. Forty 
years 17 God had spoken to the Jews in their own tongue, as it 
were. Forty years He had waited for their repentance. To 
persevere longer m a system unfavorable to the free spirit of the 
Gospel, would only separate the Hebrews from their brethren 
of Christendom at large, and subject them to the dwarfing and 
deadening influence of sect and party feeling. 

It is probable that this truth dawned but gradually on the 
minds of the Hebrew Christians. Being recognized by some, 
and more or less repudiated by others, it proved the occasion, 
as it were, of a new sifting of the nation. The strict Judaizers 
separated by degrees from their larger-minded brethren. , r 

1 J ° ^ Nazarenes y 

A sect of Nazarenes arose, legalists and purists of EMonites, 

Samfisceans. 

the narrowest kind. The Ebionites, more actively ra- 
tionalistic, adhered to the law, rejected the Divinity of Christ, 

J 7 Our Lord's ministry began about the year 30 ; the destruction of the 
Temple was in the year 70 or 72, on the same day of the week and month on 
which Nebuchadnezzar had burnt the former temple. Many other coinci- 
dences, manifestly showing that Judaism had come to an end, are to be found 
in Dr. Jarvis's Church of the Redeemed ; also in Foulkes's Man. of Ec. Hist. 



46 History of the Church, 

and covered the nakedness of their unbelief with shreds of 
Gnostic speculation. The Sampsaeans fell back upon a supposed 
primitive Jacobite tradition. These, and perhaps many other 
obscure sects, sprang in course of time from the now cold and 
sluggish blood of Judaic Christianity. 

The deliverance of the mother Church of Christendom 
from influences of this kind seems to have been con- 

be co nd 

overthrow, summated by the second, and, so far as the Circum- 

A.D. 135. . J ' ' . 

cision was concerned, decisive overthrow of the sa- 
cred city. 

The Emperor Hadrian, provoked by the long series of rebel- 
lions, which the infatuated Jews continued to renew; provoked 
Bar especially by the insurrection of Bar Cochba, that 

cochba. baleful " S on of a star," whose claims to the Messiah- 
ship had to be quenched in the blood of hundreds of thousands 
of his countrymen : destroyed whatever remains were left of the 
Jewish metropolis ; and built upon its site a Gentile colony 
under the name of ^Elia Capitolina, forbidding the Jews and 
everything Jewish to enter its walls any more. 18 

From that time forth, the Jewish Christians, under Marcus, 

a Bishop of Gentile extraction, the sixteenth from S. James in 

order of descent, became a homogeneous portion of 

Gentile 

Succession, the mass of Catholic believers ; and Jerusalem, or 

A.D. I35. . 

^Elia, recovered something of its pristine glory, as one 
of the principal Apostolic Sees. 

Of those who refused to conform to the new order of things, 
the greater part were absorbed in Gnostic or Ebionite sects. 

l8 Sulpicius Severus, quoted and discussed by Mosheim, Comm. xxviii. I. 



S. Peter. — S. Mark. — ~S. Clement. 47 



CHAPTER VIII. 

S. PETER. — S. MARK. — S. CLEMENT. 

S. Peter's labors are sufficiently well known to show the fulfil- 
ment of the promises made to Him by our Lord, but beyond 
that point are matter of conjecture only. Being the $. Peters 
first to confess the Divinity of Christ, he became the position. 
first stone 1 in the spiritual foundation of the Church. He held 
the keys, and was not slow to use them, by which the door of 
the kingdom was opened to the three great divisions His use of 
of the human race. To the Jews in Jerusalem, to the the Keys ' 
Samaritans in Samaria, and to the Gentiles in Csesarea, these 
cities being the centres respectively of the three races in Pales- 
tine, he was foremost in giving the seal of sonship and adoption. 
Finally, having resided for awhile in Caesarea and Antioch, and 
having labored, perhaps, in the countries mentioned in his first 
Epistle, he closed his career in Rome in company with S. Paul- 
He was crucified, it is said, with his head downward. 

1 S. Matt. xvi. 17-19; Peter is Petros, not Petra: a distinction not to be 
overthrown by any supposed Aramaic original used by our Lord. Whatever 
word our Lord may have used, the Greek of the New Testament is the lan- 
guage of the Holy Ghost ; and the Holy Ghost came as the Interpreter of the 
words of our Lord. If the Holy Ghost, therefore, calls Simon Petros, and 
the Rock on which the Church was built Petra, we ought to adhere to thr 
distinction. While on this subject, I may remark that the Rock seems to be 
the Scripture symbol of the Divinity, and the Stone, of the Humanity of our 
Lord. The Church, of course, was founded on both. The keys are by many 
regarded as synonymous with the power of binding and loosing. It seems 
more natural to apply the figure to the first admission to the Church ; espe- 
cially as that admission was accompanied in Samaria and Jerusalem by two 
terrible examples of exclusion. This primary application, however, does not 
preclude the other and more common sense. 



48 History of the Church. 

The account given by Eusebius of a supposed visit to Rome, 
just after the conversion of Cornelius, is liable to objection, not 
His visits only from the silence of the Acts and of the Epistle to 
the Romans, but from the over close resemblance be- 
tween this alleged visit and that which took place at a later 
period ; an encounter with Simon Magus being common to 
both occasions. Nothing is more natural in tradition than to 
make two events out of two accounts of one and the same 
event. 

His travels being much in the direction of S. Paul's — to 
Caesarea, Antioch, the countries mentioned in his first Epistle, 
Hh possibly Corinth, possibly Babylon in Egypt, and more 

certainly Rome — he seems, according to an under- 
standing with that Apostle, to have addressed himself mainly 
to the Hebrews, or "strangers scattered abroad." 2 Hence, in 
establishing the Episcopate in Antioch and Rome, S. Paul and 
Bishoprics ne are sa -id to have acted in concert. In the former 
founded. c j t y Euodius and Ignatius were appointed the first 
Bishops, — Euodius over the Jewish, and Ignatius over the Gen- 
tile converts : 3 the two races, it is supposed, remaining for 
awhile distinct in their places and modes of worship. After- 
wards, in that great frenzy of expiring Judaism which extended 
to all parts of the Roman world, Euodius was slain in an out- 
break of the Heathen against the Jews ; and his separate charge, 
abandoning their peculiarities, became under Ignatius an homo- 
geneous portion of the now united flock. Similar events may 
have taken place in Rome. It must be confessed, however, that 

2 i Peter, i. The Epistle is written for Gentile Christians (ii. io) : but the 
style of address shows that S. Peter regarded them from the Judaic point of 
view — as sojourners, strangers scattered abroad, etc. 

3 Such is the conjecture of Baronius, following the assertion of the Apos- 
tolic Constitutions ; though the fact of more than one Bishop appointed to a 
city may be as well or better explained by that collegiate principle on which 
the Apostles so often acted. It might be also, that in a troublous period, when 
synods could not be held, and Bishops could not assemble from different cities, 
it would be thought best to secure a sort of synodal action by having two, or 
three, or more Bishops in each of the great centres. See Book II. chap. x. 



S. Peter. — S. Mark. — 6 1 . Clement. 49 

the ultimate fusion of the Jew and Gentile Churches is one of 
the obscurest points in early Church history. 

S. Peter's character, and there is solid reason to believe 
his "gift," or peculiar work, were eminently pastoral. 4 His 
natural impulsiveness, his proneness to precipitous His Gift 
extremes, and, above all, the affectionateness of his P astoral - 
disposition, made him, when disciplined by grace, the more 
capable of sympathizing largely with men of every sort, and of 
distinguishing complementary opposites from those really antag- 
onistic and irreconcilable. In this respect his threefold denial 
may have been as useful to him as his threefold confession. 
Having experienced that infirmity of "amazement" 5 to which 
the "lambs" are liable, he was the better able to have compas- 
sion for it. Having needed strengthening himself, he His 
was the more ready to "strengthen the brethren." It Siren & 
is remarkable, however, that the latest inspired record Weakness - 
of this great Apostle exhibits him in his weakness, rather than 
in his strength. When he first went to Antioch, 6 he showed his 
appreciation of the grace given to the Gentiles, and of their 
entire equality with the Jews, by freely eating with them ; but 
afterwards, yielding to the urgency of the Judaizing party, he 
withdrew from this position, and exposed himself censuredby 
thereby to the censure of S. Paul. Of the events of s ' PauL 
his later life even tradition says little. From his second Epistle 
we gather that, like S. Paul, he was forewarned of the approach 
of death, 7 and saw the fiery trials that were coming upon the 
Church. It is equally certain that he did what in him lay to 
provide for all emergencies. That he was ever Bishop of Anti- 
och and Rome, in the strict sense of the word, 8 is warranted by 

4 John, xxi. 15-17. It seems to me characteristic of the two Apostles, 
that S. Paul calls our Lord " the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession," 
but S. Peter entitles Him " the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls." 

s 1 Peter, iii. 6. 6 Gal. ii. II. 7 2 Peter, i. 14. 

8 The claim that he was seven years Bishop of Antioch, and twenty or 
twenty-five years Bishop of Rome, involves chronological and other difficulties 
without number. See Barrow on the Pope's Supremacy. Tillemont (Me- 

3 



50 History of the Church. 

no reliable testimony of the early Church ; but that he and S. 
Paul appointed the first Bishops of those cities seems to have 
been generally admitted. 

S. Peter was a married man; and his "company," as may 

be inferred from a passage of S. Paul, was graced by those 

srenial influences of domestic life which the Tews, in 

His Wife. to J ' 

travelling, were more accustomed than the heathen to 

"lead about" with them. 9 His most intimate associates were 
first S. John, afterwards S. James of Jerusalem, S. Barnabas, and 
finally S. Paul. 

S. Mark the Evangelist, his chosen " Son," or Disciple, he 
sent to Alexandria, where, after preaching the Gospel 
in various parts of Egypt, he established the "Evan- 
gelic See," and left Annianus Bishop. 

S. Clement of Rome, left as Bishop of that See with Linus 
and Cletus, became sole Pastor after the death of these 

6". Clement. 

two, and is the author of the only uninspired record 
now extant of the Church in the first century. 

It is a fraternal Epistle from the Church of Rome to that of 

Corinth, occasioned by a factious attempt in the latter city to 

depose certain Presbyters from their office. Hence 

Epistle to r J 

the Cor- the letter is largely occupied with questions of Church 

inthians. 

order. The writer sees a law of harmony and pro- 
portion in all the works of God. Sun and moon, earth and 
stars, the tides of the sea, the seasons of the year, the shifting 
winds, the overflowing fountains, and all the innumerable tribes 

of living creatures, move freely, but harmoniously, in 

All things to ' J9 J ' 

subject to the order that God has foreordained and unalterably 

Law. 

established. The same principle must apply to God's 
spiritual kingdom. His worship is not to be left to fancy or ca- 
price. His word is not to be divided by all men alike. The Chief 

moires, etc.), in his endeavor to reconcile this claim with facts, shows his 
embarrassment at every step. Tom. i. part 2. 

9 I Cor. ix. 5. Peter's wife, tradition says, was a worthy helpmeet. 
When summoned "to go home" by the path of martyrdom, she obeyed tht 
summons with joy. Euseb. iii. 30 ; Clem. Alex. Stromat. vii. 



S. Pe'er. — ^. Mark. — S. Clement. 51 

Priest has his proper office ; the Priests theirs; the Levites theirs ; 
and the Layman is called to the work of legitimate lay service. 
All are not Prefects ; all are not Chiliarchs ; all are not Centu- 
rions. Each has his vocation, each his appointed place. It 
remains, therefore, for each to attend to his own business in that 
particular station to which it hath pleased God to call him. 
This, with many charitable exhortations, is the sum of the 
Saint's counsel to the turbulent Corinthians ; a counsel so 
highly appreciated in those times that the sedition was ap- 
peased, and the Epistle was for a long while read publicly in 
the Churches, with a respect hardly inferior to that paid to the 
Canon of Inspiration. 

This admirable Letter, like the Pastoral Epistles of S. Paul, 
serves to mark that crisis in Church History when questions of 
order, naturally postponed in the first effusion of Pen- 

Questions 

tecostal life, had to be considered and deliberately set- of order, 

. , how settled. 

tied. The Churchman, the Bishop, the Divine, is now 
taking the place of the Evangelist or Apostle. The Tabernacle 
once reared by the first Preachers, it devolves upon their suc- 
cessors to drive the stakes and stretch the cords. With Clement 
in Rome, John in Ephesus, Ignatius in Antioch, Symeon in 
Jerusalem, and Annianus in Alexandria, to superintend the 
work, there is every assurance that it was done well and wisely ; 
so that God was the author of the order, as well as of the doc- 
trine, which, on the lifting of the curtain of the second great 
Act of the Church's history, we find to be everywhere prevail- 
ing, and everywhere the same. 



52 History of the Church. 



CHAPTER IX. 

S. JOHN. 

S. John, the beloved disciple, differed from his brethren in this 
^ 7 , respect, that his main work seems to have begun about 

S. John the L ° 

survivor the time that they were summoned to their rest. For 

of the 

Apostolic his peculiar mission he had to tarry, as it were, until 

College. 

the Lord came. 1 His influence was reserved for the 
generation that came after the doom of the Holy City. 

Soon after the martyrdom of S. Peter and S. Paul, he 
Removes removed to Asia Proper, a field in which the wheat 
Proper. was already mingled with the tares of pernicious 
speculations. He afterwards visited Rome, and in the persecu- 
Rome. tion under Domitian, was banished to the Isle of 
Patmos. On the accession of Nerva, he returned to Asia, and, 
Patmos, at tne request of the Bishops of that Province, assumed 
a.d. 96. foe Episcopate of Ephesus, which then lay vacant. 
There he quietly awaited the time of his departure, confining 
Ephcstis. his preaching, it is said, to the simple exhortation, 
"Little children, love one another! " Towards the end of his 
life he was so infirm that he had to be carried into church. 2 

Judging from the traditions of this period of his life, John 
continued still to be a Son of Thunder, — the thunder not the 
His less terrible, that it came from a cloudless sky. Less 

< sonof Ur ' demonstrative than Peter, and with less sympathy, 
Thunder. p er ] ia; p S) f or commonplace passions and infirmities, he 
loved the Divine Word with an intense and contemplative devo- 

1 S. John, xxi. 22. 

2 Euseb. Eccles. Hist, iii, 18, 23, 24, 31 ; v. 24, Clemens Alexandr. Quu 

Dives Salvus ? 42. 



S. John. 53 

tion ; and "the brethren" he loved, as idealized in Him, as 
shielded by His luminous presence from all contact or approach 
of the Evil One. To him God was Light, without a shade of 
Darkness. There was no middle ground in his view, no shading, 
no perspective. His eagle eye knew no such thing as twilight. 
He loved the Truth, and hated lies. Half-truths, half-lies, or 
half-love for either, had no place in his conceptions. 

Such a character is too pure and single, too inward and 
upward-looking, for ordinary occasions. It needs a special 
crisis to draw it out from its luminous sphere. When 

Suited to a 

the moral atmosphere becomes lethargic and pesti- particular 

Cyzszs. 

lential, so that a new and quickening power is imper- 
atively demanded, then is the time for the Sons of Thunder to 
awake. At other times sheathed in imperturbable serenity, they 
know not themselves what spirit they are of, and are still less 
open to superficial observers. 

It is highly probable that the early death of James, the elder 
of the two brothers, was occasioned by some lightning-burst of 
zeal thus specially awakened. Herod had James sum- His j, rot j ier 
marily beheaded ; but Simon Peter, a more prominent, aneSty 
and ordinarily a more impetuous leader, he was con- Martyr. 
tent to cast into prison. The Son of Thunder, it is likely, had 
in some way or other touched the tyrant to the quick. 

Of the younger son of Zebedee, two acts remain to show 
that the spirit which would call down fire from heaven upon the 
heads of the Samaritans, was rather chastened than 

. . .~ Traditions. 

extinguished by the power of Divine grace. On one 
occasion he fled with horror from a public bath, because the 
heretic Cerinthus happened to be there. No house 

Cerinthus. 

could stand that harbored an enemy of the Truth ! 
At another time he had entrusted a youthful convert to the pas- 
toral care of a certain Bishop not far from Ephesus. Young 
The youth fell away, and became a leader of banditti. ^cipie. 
When John heard of it, he smote his head, rent his clothes, and 
having vehemently rebuked the remissness of the Shepherd, 
went himself among the robbers in quest of the lost sheep,, His 



54 History of the Church. 

yearning love was wonderfully rewarded. He brought back the 
youth a penitent, and restored him to the Church. 

With love such as this, tempered by God's grace and sheathed 

ordinarily in a serenity of character, childlike, affectionate, 

equable, and profound, S. John was the man of all 

ence Anti- others to cope with those "grievous wolves," the 

gnostic. L ° 

theosophic heresies of the last quarter of the century, 
whose approach S. Paul had so solemnly predicted to the Ephe- 
sian shepherds. 3 He had the eagle eye to discern the spoiler 
from afar ; the sudden swoop of the eagle to strike him down. 
His intuitive quickness of perception, united as it was to a 
soaring imagination and a virgin heart, qualified him not only to 
christian bring out a true Christian gnosis face to face with the 
false gnosis 4 of the heretic, but to array it in a garb of 
majestic simplicity and beauty. The demonstration of this 
power was reserved for a time of peculiar peril to the Faith. 
At a period when Christianity was becoming an object of theo- 
retic scrutiny, when a speculative and highly imaginative philos- 
ophy was displaying its gorgeous hues before the eyes of the 
refined and sensitive Greeks of Asia Minor, and when every lie 
found it necessary to assume a profoundly mystic and religious 
shape, then and there was the true sphere found of the Apos- 
tolic Divine and Prophet. His utterances, childlike, 
clear as crystal, but with much of that " terrible crys- 
tal " which in Ezekiel's vision overarches the canopy of heaven, 
were admirably adapted to such a state of things. 

In other respects, also, S. John merited his title as the 
Apostle of Love. For, as love is the bond of all perfectness, 
Apostu tne complement of all virtues, and the fulfilling of all 
of Love. j aw ^ - t wou id seem to have been the privilege of the 
beloved Disciple to give the last finish to the foundation work 
of his brethren ; and as Apostle, Prophet, Doctor, Evangelist, 
and Pastor, to supply whatever might be lacking in the organ- 

3 Acts, xx. 29, 30. 

4 " Oppositions of science falsely so called." 1 Tim. vi. 20. 



S. John. 55 

ization, or whatever might be desirable for the strength and 
beauty, of the Church. 

His Gospel, written late in life, is the key-stone, as it were, 
of evangelic history. His Epistles are eminently an epitome, or 
summary, or rather a kind of sublimated essence, of 

His Gospel, 

the Faith. His Revelation, in like manner, contains Epistles, 

. Revelation. 

the substance of all prophecy: its gorgeous visions 
gathering like many-colored clouds around the sunset of inspi- 
ration, blending in one harmonious whole the glories of Isaiah, 
Ezekiel, and Daniel, and illumining the entire field of the 
Church's conflicts to the end of time. 

Considering the peculiarities of his character and position, 
there is inherent probability in the story, that he set his seal, as 
it were, to the three Gospels of his predecessors, and 
perhajDs to the whole Canon of inspiration. Living of his 

thirty years within the region to which most of the 
Epistles are addressed, he could hardly have been unacquainted 
with them. One of the four great Liturgies is ascribed to him, 5 
at least in its germ, or outline. His name is associated also with 
the Asiatic custom of observing the Jewish Pascha. Without 
laying undue stress upon particulars of this kind, there was 
doubtless a special Providence in his long and peaceful residence 
among the Churches of Asia. The second generation is always 

5 Palmer, Origines Liturgicce. Polycrates (apud Euseb.) mentions that 
he wore the " petalon of high-priest." The title,, the Elder or Presbyter, that 
S. John applies to himself in his second and third Epistles, may indicate that 
his " gift," or particular vocation, lay in the quiet duties of the sanctuary, 
rather than in the more stirring life of a missionary Apostle. It was S. Paul's 
"gift" to lay the foundation; it may have been equally S. John's to build 
upon foundations already laid. The term " Presbyter," however, as used by 
S. John, seems to stand for high position of any kind (" the four and twenty 
Elders," for example), and not for Presbyters in the restricted sense. Nean- 
der concludes from its use in the two Epistles, that they were not written by 
John the Apostle, but by some Presbyter of that name. He seems not to 
notice the force of the definite article. It is not a Presbyter or Elder, but the 
Elder ; evidently pointing to some one person, to whom alone that designa- 
tion could apply. 



56 History of the Church. 

a critical period in the history of religious bodies. The first 
love passing away, there follows a season of luke- 

Second x ° J 

Generation warmness, or of alternate heats and chills. Heresies 

critical. 

begin to show themselves, schisms are engendered. 
The most trivial differences of opinion fester and gangrene into 
causes of separation. That the Church, so widely diffused, so 
heterogeneous in materials, moving in such a chaos of opinions 
and amid such scenes of religious and civil strife, as the world 
at that time presented, should not only have passed this critical 
stage of her existence without serious loss, but should have pre- 
. sented at its close a spectacle of unity and uniformity 

of the which has been the wonder of all- ages, must be 

Church. i ■ 

ascribed in the first place to an overruling wisdom 
unfathomable to man ; and in the second place to S. John, as 
the chief of the chosen instruments employed by that wisdom. 
"Little children, love one another," was not with him a mere 
word of exhortation. It was the symbol of a great power of 
discipline and order. It was the dove-like spirit of a holy con- 
servatism. For thirty years in the person of S. John, and for 
nearly a hundred years in him and his noble contemporaries 
Especially who overlived him, the same spirit pervaded the 
m Asia. Province of- Asia; and from that living and loving 
centre was communicated to the Churches in all quarters of the 
world. 

The persecution under Domitian, commonly reckoned as the 
second of the general persecutions, in which S. John was ban- 
Second Gen- ished to Patmos, having escaped unhurt, as the story 
ZcuSon, g° es > from a caldron of boiling oil, 6 was general 
ad. 95. rather in the wide alarm it caused, than either in its. 
severity or duration. It seems, in fact, to have been nothing 
more than one of the tyrant's innumerable caprices. His 

6 This story is mentioned by Tertullian. Whatever the testimony may be 
worth, one can readily imagine that S. John's peculiar phrase, " an unction 
from the Holy One," might suggest just such a punishment to the cruel and 
frivolous mind of a tyrant like Domitian. Tertull. De Prescript. Hcercticor, 

3& 



Holy Women. 57 

jealousy of everything noble and illustrious had been excited 
by a rumor of certain descendants of King David being yet 
alive in some part of Judaea. When he found, however, that 
these were simple and poor men, his anger against the Christians 
ceased, or was diverted into other channels. 



CHAPTER X. 

HOLY WOMEN. 



The high position held by woman, both in the Gospels and in 
the Acts, would render the story of this century incomplete, if 
at least some allusion were not made to those who may rr Holy 

Women in 

be called the first heroines of Christianity. With Tradition 

and Ihs- 

regard to them, however, History has proved less tory. 

mindful than Inspiration and Tradition. Inspiration has pre- 
served their names. Tradition has fondly embellished them 
with beautiful though inconsistent traits. To History nothing 
is left but the ungrateful task of confessing how little is known 
about them ; little, at all events, beyond the pregnant hints 
given in the New Testament. 

S. Mary, the Mother of our Lord, was committed by Him 
to the care of the beloved Disciple ; and with him she remained, 
probably, till summoned to her rest. We see her first 
as a devout and holy Virgin, receiving in simple but Mother of 

our Lord. 

thoughtful faith the wonderful message of the Angel ; 
then as a matron and mother, sympathizing readily with the 
household cares of her friends, 1 and anxious for her Son, on one 
occasion with sorrowful solicitude, 2 and on another with a shade 
of natural misgiving ; 3 then, as one of the few who stood beside 
His Cross ; and, lastly, as a widow, without children or others 
near of kin to whom she could be confided, left therefore to the 

1 S. John, ii. 3. 2 S. Luke, ii. 48. 3 S. Mark, iii. 21, 31. 

O 



58 History of the Church, 

care of the virgin Disciple, 4 and engaged with the other women, 
and with the Apostles and Disciples, in the daily worship of the 
Church. Within these limits her history is clear, and her char- 
acter stands out in singular perfection of womanly dignity and 
beauty. But all before, and all after, Inspiration has left in 
Reserve of doubt. With a sacred reserve in which one can hardly 
cripture. ^-j tQ gee a i esson ^ on ly that short segment of her 

existence is made visible to posterity, in which she vouches, as 
it were, for the real and perfect Humanity of her blessed and 
only Son. 

Tradition, or, as seems more probable, heretical invention, 5 

endeavored in later times to fill this blank. Joachim and Anna, 

a blameless pair, were both well stricken in years, and 

Legends 

and Tra- unblest with offspring : for which, however, they con- 

ditions. 

tinued to pray without ceasing. The latter, on one 
occasion, in the fervor of her petitions, dared to go within 
the Holy of Holies, which the high-priest alone is allowed to 
enter. There her prayer was granted ; and an Angel, at the 
same moment, announced the good news to Joachim, then far 
away in the desert. To this some heretics added, that the birth 
of the Virgin was as immaculate and miraculous as her concep- 
tion had been. It was more generally believed, on similar 
authority, that she lived secluded in the Temple from her third 
to her fourteenth year, and devoted herself to a life of voluntary 
virginity. In the same way, while some have supposed, on the 
authority of a passage of doubtful meaning in the Acts of the 
Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, that she died and was buried 

4 Her being thus left to John is fatal to the weak argument made by 
Neander and some others, in favor of the theory that James of Jerusalem was 
her son. James survived, till just before the Judaic war; his brothers (as we 
learn from Hegesippus in Eusebius) were still alive, as eminent Christian 
men, and landowners, though not rich, towards the end of the century. All 
of these, leading a quiet and stationary life among their own kin, were in 
a better position to take care of her, had she been their mother, than John 
could have been. 

s These stories were of Gnostic or Ebionite invention ; many of the early 
sects pretending to a secret tradition unknown to the Catholic Church. 



Holy Women. 59 

in that city, others have preferred the later legend, that she 
came to her end in Jerusalem, and after three, or, as some will 
have it, forty days, rose from the dead, and was assumed, soul 
and body, into heaven. But all these notions, and innumerable 
others of the same kind, are without the least show of historic 
foundation. They first saw the light in times long after the age 
of the Apostles; and it is universally acknowledged 6 that the 
writings in which they first appear are " utterly apocryphal and 
full of fables." 

The same is to be said of the stories concerning Mary, the 
wife of Cleophas, and other faithful women who ministered to 
our Lord. Of the Prophetesses, Deaconesses, Wid- other miy 
ows, and other devout handmaidens of the Lord men- women. 
tioned in the Acts and the Epistles, the traditions are equally vague 
and unsatisfactory. If the legends connected with them have any 
value, it is merely that, as a dark and confused background, 
they bring into clearer light the dignity and simplicity of the 
Gospel Narratives. 

To the honored names recorded by Inspiration, Tradition 
has added a few, such as that of S. Thecla, the first female 
martyr; and that of Domitilla, a niece of the Empe- 

* . . ' L SS. Thecla 

ror Domitian, and wife of Flavius Clemens his cousin, and 

Domitilla. 

who, with a great number of others, was put to death 
for Atheism and Jewish manners ; in other words, for the pro- 
fession of Christianity. 7 Domitilla suffered exile for the Faith. 
S. Thecla, a maiden of Iconium, converted by S. Paul on his 
first visit to that region, devoted herself, it is said, to a life of 
virginity; left a luxurious home, breaking off her engagement 
to a noble youth ; accompanied S. Paul in his travels ; per- 
formed many wonders ; and, after a miraculous deliverance from 

6 See Tillemont, Baronius, the Bollandists, et al. The caution with which 
Roman Catholic writers endeavor to sustain the credit of the tissue of wonders 
connected with the name of S. Mary, while demolishing the credit of the 
earliest witnesses to those wonders, is most remarkable. Tillemont's notes are 
particularly instructive. Memoires pour Servir a V Hist. Eccles. torn. i. 

7 See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, etc., vol. i. ch. xvi. 



60 History of the Church. 

the beasts of the Roman Amphitheatre, seems to have died in 

peace. Her name, widely celebrated in the early Church, heads 

a long list of highly intellectual as well as holy women, 

Virgins, 

to whom Christianity and virginity were pledges of a 
freedom, 8 which in heathen society was more or less denied 
them. Her acts, however, first written by a Presbyter of Asia 
Minor, whom S. John deposed on account of the many false- 
hoods contained in his book, 9 are manifestly entitled to little or 
no credit. 



CHAPTER XI. 

CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 



That all powers necessary for the establishment and subsequent 

government of the Church were committed in the first place to 

the Eleven, and afterwards to those who, either by 

A 11 powers 

given to election or by an immediate Divine call, were added 
to their number, there can be no reasonable question. 
These all were Apostles, or Legates of Him who is " the Apos- 
tle of our profession," the One sent forth by the Father, to be 
Prophet, Priest, and King. But the mission He had received 
from the Father, He gave in its fulness to them. The 

by the ' to 

Apostle and Apostles, therefore, were the ecumenical, catholic, per- 

High Priest. 

petual Ministry. Collectively, they attended to mat- 
ters of general concernment : individually, each had a charge, 

8 The preference given to virginity in the early Church tended to elevate 
woman in the social scale. She could marry, or not, of her own free choice. 
She was no longer an article to be disposed of, sometimes in infancy or child- 
hood, by guardians or parents. It is remarkable how many of the female 
martyrs were virgins, who had refused to marry heathen husbands, to whom 
they had been thus betrothed. 

9 Tert. De Bap. 17 ; Hier. De Vir. ill. 7. It is S. Jerome only who men- 
tions the name of S. John. 



Church Government, 61 

or field, the limits of which would be determined by mutual 
consent, 1 or on general principles of equity and convenience. 
In their relations to one another, they were " broth- n , 

J Brothers, 

ers," colleagues, peers. They called no man "father" Colleagues, 
on earth. According to the type of the old Theoc- 
racy, a "kingdom" was given to them; but the Head was to 
be invisible till the time of the final " appearing and kingdom" 
of Jesus Christ. 

Such was the ministry, as called, and trained, and commis- 
sioned by our Lord himself. That it was to be the abiding 
Order, is seen, not only in the promise of perpetuity The abid- 
contained in the words, " Lo, I am with you always, tng r 
even to the end of the world," but also in the fact that the 
term "Apostolic" has continued in all times and places to be 
one of the four "notes," or definitions, of the "One, Holy, 
Catholic, and Apostolic Church." 2 

1 Gal. ii. 9; Rom. xv. 16. 

2 Among modern German writers on this subject, Mosheim acknowledges 
the early rise of Episcopacy, and is almost disposed to grant that James was 
Bishop of Jerusalem. He confounds Bishops, however, with Diocesans or 
See-bishops ; forgetting that Bishops at large, missionary Bishops, etc., have 
existed in all ages. Dr. Schaff is entangled in the same error, and while he 
professes to give the arguments pro and con, he misstates the argument for 
Episcopacy, and so neutralizes its force. Neander denies altogether the exist- 
ence of a clerus, or clerical order in the Apostolic Church. Dr. Hase starts 
from the point that " the Twelve Apostles at first regarded themselves as a 
perfected or exclusive college for the establishment of Christianity in the 
world" ; but, in referring to the establishment they made in Jerusalem, omits 
all mention of James. In this way, he staves off Episcopacy till the times of 
S. Ignatius, and accounts for it (as some rationalists account for the existence 
of the world) "by the concurrent power of circumstances." Gieseler very 
fully grants the early establishment of Episcopacy in Jerusalem, in the person 
of James. Thiersch (the Irvingite) treats the subject as many Anglicans have 
done, except that on a very fine point (the position of S. John relatively to 
the seven angels) he builds up a theory of an Episcopacy of three orders, viz., 
Apostles, Angels, Bishops. Rothe makes Episcopacy to have been established 
by the Apostles in council, at the election of Symeon (Euseb. iii. n). Other 
Germans have adopted different shades or mixtures of these various views. 
Among Anglican writers, I may mention Bilson's Perpetttal Divine Govern- 



62 History of the Church. 

By calling the Seventy to the same ministry with the Twelve, 
though in a secondary capacity, our Lord established a semi- 
nary, as it were, for a second and larger growth of 
Aids or Apostolic leaders. 3 The name Disciples given to them 
implies that, while fulfilling a temporary mission as 
" prophets of the kingdom," they were in training and expec- 
tation of a more enduring office. Accordingly, from their ranks 
Matthias was elected to the vacant bishopric of Judas. Barna- 
bas, also, was probably one of these. So, likewise, S. Luke, 
and many others afterwards called Apostles. In imitation of 
this system of a secondary Apostolate, we find in after times 
that each of the chief Apostles was accompanied in his labors 
by a chosen company of sons, disciples, brothers, colleagues, 
yoke-fellows, sometimes called Apostles or Messengers of the 
Churches, who held to their principals some such relation as 
Joshua to Moses, as Elisha to Elijah, as the sons of the prophets 
to the prophets, or as the Twelve more recently had held to our 

ment as a work less read than it deserves : also, among American authors, 
Onderdonk, On Episcopacy, Mines's Presbyterian, etc., Wilson, Church Iden- 
tified. In the following chapter I have given (perhaps) more weight to the 
collegiate principle than is commonly conceded to it. 

3 Dr. Schaff sees in the calling of the Seventy a reference to the Gen- 
tiles ; but arbitrarily distinguishes the secondary Apostles as Evangelists. Of 
the eight whom he so designates, not one is so called in the New Testament ; 
while the term apostles (translated " messengers," Phil. ii. 25 ; 2 Cor. viii. 23) 
of the Churches is applied to many of S. Paul's companions. Timothy, in 
one place (2 Tim. iv. 5), is exhorted to do the work of an Evangelist. But 
this does not prove him to have been an Evangelist only, any more than Acts, 
xiii. 1, would prove Paul or Barnabas to have been "prophets" only. Dr. 
Schaff mentions Mark and Luke among his Evangelists — because, I suppose, 
they are commonly so called. But, on the same principle, he might have in- 
cluded Matthew and John. The truth is, the term Evangelist means simply 
one who had an extraordinary "gift" for preaching the Gospel, and in that 
sense S. Paul was the chief of Evangelists — but none the less, however, an 
Apostle in the full sense of the word. I may here remark, that in the 13th 
canon of Neo-Csesarea (a.d. 315) the Village Bishops are said to be "in imita- 
tion of the LXX.," and therefore " fellow-officers in the same service" with 
the City Bishops. 



Church Government, 63 

Lord himself. Being endowed with special gifts — "Apostles, 
Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers" — being designated in 
some cases by "prophecies going before," being employed in 
the larger fields of labor as Apostles of the Churches, being 
personally acquainted, moreover, with the Apostles' "doctrine, 
purpose, and manner of life," they were in some sense their 
disciples, or sons, but in another sense their aids, or fellow- 
laborers. Thus, Timothy was more than once clothed with the 
full authority of S. Paul. His name, like that of second 
Titus, Sosthenes, and Silvanus, 4 is associated with S. ^h^Apos- 
Paul's in the superscription of Epistles. All that they folate. 
lacked, during the lifetime of S. Paul, was a field of primary 
or separate jurisdiction. But, in serving thus in a secondary 
position, they simply followed the example of their leader. For 
it is to be observed that, during his ministry in Antioch, Saul 
himself was reckoned last among a company of "prophets," of 
which Barnabas was first. So, in the first missionary journey, 
he was second to Barnabas. It was twelve years or more after 
his first calling by our Lord, that he assumed a primary position 
as an Apostolic leader. 3 

Such, then, was the catholic or ecumenical ministry of the 
Church : at first, one Apostolic company of Twelve, resident 
in Terusalem ; afterwards, when the door to the Gen- 

J ' ' One College 

tiles had been opened, numerous companies or colleges at first, 

then many. 

of the same kind, acting dispersedly but harmoniously 
in all quarters of the world. The collegiate principle, which is 
manifest in all this, was never abandoned in the Church. Even 
when each great city came to have its own Bishop, the principle 
was retained in that ancient canon which required two The Prin- 
or three prelates to concur in Episcopal ordinations ; ciple ^ xed " 
and still more fully, in the custom of annual or semi-annual 
Synods. Wherever truth was to be proclaimed with fulness of 
authority, as against some heresy, for example, the "great com- 
pany of preachers" was obliged to come together. 

4 1 Cor. i. 1 ; 2 Cor. i. I ; Phil. i. I ; Col. i. I ; I and 2 Thessal. i. I. 

5 Acts, xiii. I, 2; xiv. 14; xv. 12, 25. 



6c\ History of the Church. 

The sojourn of the Twelve in Jerusalem, the only Church 
founded by the original Apostolic College, enabled them to es- 
local tablish in that great centre the first pattern and exam- 
PreSJSrs P^ e 0I " a l° ca l Church. 6 There were Presbyters, or 
w&ka*' Elders, who, being sometimes called Bishops, or Over- 
ras^r or seers > may, for the sake of clearness, be distinguished 
Bishoj>. as Presbyter-Bishops. To them were added the Seven, 
afterwards called Deacons. Finally, the work of organizing the 
mother Church at Jerusalem being duly accomplished, James, 
an Apostle, and probably one of the original Twelve, was put 
in special charge of that important See ; and the other Apostles, 
leaving its government to him, separated, and departed on their 
respective missions. 

From that time forth, James stands before us in a twofold 
relation. He is an Apostle, reckoned first among the 

James an , 

Apostle- three main "pillars" of the universal Church. He is 

Bisko/>. 1 

a local Chief-pastor, Bishop, or Overseer. We may 
call him, therefore, by way of distinction, the Apostle-Bishop of 
the See of Jerusalem. 7 

Now, what the Apostles did collectively with regard to the 
mother See, they afterwards did severally, though from the dif- 
ference of circumstances somewhat more slowly, with 

The same 

System regard to other Churches in the limits of their respect- 

elseiuhere. 

ive missions. Wherever a Church was founded, Pres- 
byters or Bishops 8 were ordained. To them a certain oversight, 
subject to that of the Apostolic founder, was duly committed. 
They could preach, teach, minister in things sacred, and act in 

6 " The new Churches out of Palestine formed themselves after the pat- 
tern of the mother Church in Jerusalem .... James .... stood in Jerusa- 
lem, where he continued to reside, at the head of the Church, in equal esteem 
with the Apostles .... quite in the relation of a later Bishop, but without 
the appellation." Gies. Ecc. Hist. \ 30. (Smith's Am. Ed.) 

7 Gal. i. 19; ii. 12; Acts, xii. 17; xv. 13; xxi. 18. 

8 I assume the identity of meaning of these two names in the New Tes- 
tament, though there is high authority among sound critics for making a dis- 
tinction. Those who make the distinction can put the origin of city Sees and 
resident Bishops a little earlier than it is put in this chapter. 



Church Government. 65 

matters of discipline and doctrine as a kind of local council, 
senate, or sanhedrim. Deacons were in like manner appointed, 
with a special view to the administration of the charities of the 
Church. The proper sphere of woman, as a help-meet Deaconesses. 
for man, in the higher as well as lower cares of life, 
was acknowledged in the assignment of certain charitable offices 
to Deaconesses and Widows, 9 the same, perhaps, that are some- 
times called elder women, or Presbyteresses. The Eider 
Churches, thus organized by each particular Apostle, 
continued to be the objects of his paternal care ; were visited 
by him, or by some one of his company, at certain intervals ; 
and, on the natural and equitable principle of each limiting his 
supervision to the line of his own labors, constituted his field 
or jurisdiction. 10 Thus S. Paul was Apostle-Bishop of Ephesus, 
Corinth, and many other places. The assignment of one resi- 
dent head to each city Church was naturally reserved, until the 
number of Christians in each place, and the number of persons 
duly qualified and trained as "Apostles of Churches," 11 ren- 
dered such an arrangement desirable and practicable. 

This simple order, by which the government of each local 
Church was so admirably knit to that of the Church at large, 
was everywhere quickened, as it were, by the charis- chakisms, 
mata, largesses, or special " gifts," which followed the 0R GlFTS - 
triumphant Ascension of our Lord to the Right Hand of the 
Majesty on High. Such "gifts" were needed as a "sign." In 
the lack of a sufficient number of persons duly educated for the 
office, they fitted a great mass of believers for some useful part 
in "the work of the Ministry," and were among the chief in- 
struments of the supernatural growth of the Church. 

Among these, the "gift" to be Apostles naturally held the 
first place. Close akin to this were the special endowments 
which distinguished the fit persons for Prophets, Evan- Their 

gelists, Pastors, Teachers. Those wdio exhibited signs Order. 
of the possession of these higher gifts, seem generally to have 

9 1 Tim. v. 9; Tit. ii. 3; Phil. iv. 3. 
10 1 Cor. iv. 14-21 ; 2 Cor. x. 15, 16. " 2 Cor. viii. 23. 



66 History of the Church. 

been enrolled in the companies of the Apostles. Last of all 
were a crowd of inferior talents, mii'acles, healings, helps y gov- 
ernments, diversities of tongues, and the like, which continued so 
short a time that the very meaning of the names is only matter 
of conjecture. 

This wonderful profusion of extraordinary gifts for the Min- 
istry is no essential part of the Ministry itself. It was simply a 
Their gracious provision for a single and peculiar crisis. It 
Purpose. belonged to the sowing, or planting season. It was 
that flowering, or blossoming of the Tree of Life, which partly 
anticipated, and partly developed the fruits of ordinary intel- 
lectual and spiritual culture. Like the parallel phenomenon of 
the Old Testament 12 — the outbreak, namely, of the spirit of 
prophecy in the Camp, while the order of the Tabernacle was 
being established — it opened the way, and gave a Di- 

Type. 

vine sanction, or sign, to the necessary division and 
distribution of ministerial functions. 13 As S. Paul declares : 
The gifts were given, "in order to fit believers for ministerial 
work" — to fit them "for the edification," or building up "of 
the Body of Christ." 14 When this miraculous fitting of men 
for the Ministry had been sufficiently accomplished ; when, 
according to what seems to be the drift of the lively mixed 
metaphors of the Apostle, the Church had weathered the com- 
paratively unsettled and critical time of its infancy, and was 

12 Numbers, xi. 24-30. 

*3 If any notions of parity existed among the early Christians, nothing 
could more effectually have rebuked such notions, and prepared men's minds 
for a system of subordinated grades in the Ministry, than the measure in 
which the gifts were given. See Rom. xii. 3. 

z 4 Ephesians, iv. 12-16; in which passages S. Paul declares (1) the occa- 
sion of these gifts, viz., the Ascension in triumph; (2) their nature, viz., to be 
Apostles, Prophets, etc., etc.; (3) their object, viz., Tcpbq Karapriajudv — "for 
fitting," adapting, perfecting — "the saints," etc — "into ministerial work,'' 
etc.; (4) their duration, viz., till the Church, having passed its infant state, 
arrives at the well-compacted proportions of a mature and settled manhood, 
?'. e., till it should be strong enough to be left to the laws of ordinary and his- 
toric growth. 



Church Government. 6y 

hardening into the definite proportions of maturer manhood ; 
when, in short, its organic connection with Christ, the Head, 
had been compacted by the development of all the joints and 
bands of a harmonious system of order : then, prophecies began 
to fail ; then, tongues began to cease ; then, miraculous knowl- 
edge vanished away ; then, the gifts, in short, and the beautiful 
and marvellous ministration of gifts, were quietly withdrawn 
from the sphere of human experience ; and ordinary gifts, or 
talents, took their place. 

And this is confirmed by observing the difference made by 
our Lord between that preparatory and extraordinary commission 
given to the Twelve and the Seventy when they were Difference 
sent forth two by two as Prophets of the Kingdom, and T J z e J™ e a e 7 y 
that perpetual charge laid upon the Twelve when they Perma nent 
were sent forth with full powers to preach the Gospel. Mission. 
In the former commission He says : " Preach the Kingdom of 
Heaven at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, 
cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." The 
power to do wonders is an essential part of their mission. But 
in the latter commission He says : " Go ye out into all the 
world, preach the Gospel to every creature, baptize, teach all 
things that I have commanded ; and lo ! I am with you always, 
even to the end of the world." No extraordinary power is 
embodied in their commission. For, though miraculous gifts 
are afterwards alluded to, it is not in connection with the 
Ministry, but with the Church in general. "These signs shall 
follow them that believe." From all which it is evident that 
while the gift fitted men to be able Ministers of God, and 
sometimes designated the persons who should be admitted 
into the Ministry they were no essential feature of the Ministry, 
itself. 

In the exercise of their office as chief rulers of the Church, 
the Apostles did not hesitate to assert their authority 

' Power 

when necessary, but at the same time avoided all ap- communi- 
cated. 

pearance of despotic or monocratic rule. They com- 
municated to the Presbyters every priestly power of the min- 



68 History of the Church. 

istry, 15 and a share of every governing or kingly power. The 
particular function which they reserved absolutely to themselves 
was that of ordination; and even in this the Presbyters took 
part, when the person ordained was to be admitted into their 
own order. The "laying on of hands" for confirmation 
seems also to have been reserved to the highest order, at least 
Relation of during the Apostolic age. 16 In accordance with this 
hone fraternal communication of ministerial powers, the 

another. Presbyters, and Brethren generally, were taken into 
council with the Apostles, even in matters which the latter were 
perfectly competent to determine by themselves. In the same 
spirit S. Peter, in addressing the Presbyters, could speak of 
himself as their symfiresbyteros, fellow-presbyter ; the powers 
of the ministry being, in fact, so distributed, that no name can 
be given to any one order, which is not in some sense applica- 
ble to the others also. The earliest image, therefore, of the 
relation of the Presbytery of each local Church to the Chief 
Pastor, was that which represented the Bishop as in the place 
of Christ, 17 and the Presbyters as in the place of His " friends " 
and "brethren," the Twelve : an idea beautifully carried out in 
the most primitive arrangement of Churches ; namely, that of 
thirteen thrones, the middle one of which was occupied by the 
Bishop, the others by the Presbyters. The Deacons, in like 

T 5 It is in priestly power, sacerdotio, that S. Jerome affirms the equality of 
Presbyters, Bishops, and Apostles. Ep. ad Evangehim. 

16 Bingham's Antiquities, B. ii. ch. xix. 

x 7 S. Ignatius (ad Magnes. 6) represents the three orders respectively as 
in the place of God, of the Apostles, of yesus Christ. The context, however, 
seems to show that by the first of these expressions he means Christ as the 
Divine head; and by the third, Christ in His earthly ministry. It has been 
well observed by Pearson, Bingham, and others, that S. Ignatius exalts the 
Presbyters as earnestly as he does the Bishop. The same may be said of his 
way of speaking of that order, " the dearest " to him, the Deacons. The idea 
of coordination was more prominent to his mind than that of subordination — 
though the latter was not lost sight of. " My life for him that is subject to 
the Bishop, Presbyters, and Deacons — God's stewards, assessors, and minis- 
ters." See Bingham, ii. xix. 6-8: ii. xx. 18. 



Church Government. 69 

manner, were represented as "angels and prophets," 18 bearing 
the diaconia of Jesus Christ: to wit, that out-going ministry, 
which our Lord exercised when He went about as a prophet, 
doing good. The three orders, in short, all participated in the 
threefold ministry; the main difference being, that in the first 
order the kingly idea was most prominent, in the second the 
priestly, and in the third the prophetic. 

The People also were encouraged to take an active interest 
in Church affairs. The essential kingly priesthood of Lay In _ 
the mass of believers was as carefully inculcated upon FI - UENCE - 
the Christian, as it had previously been upon the Israelite 
Church. 19 The doctrine was carried out, moreover, into dis- 
cipline and worship. As already mentioned, the Brethren were 
present at Apostolic councils; and decrees went forth in their 
name, as well as in that of the Apostles and Elders. In the choice 
of the seven Deacons, and possibly in that of Matthias, the pre- 
cedent of election was established ; so that the Church 

Election 

no sooner became settled than popular suffrage con- of the 

Clergy. 

curred with ordination in the appointment of Bishops 
and other Church officers. In contributing to the common 
cause the brethren were left free to tax themselves ; in all acts 
of common worship they had an important part assigned them ; 20 
and even in the administration of discipline, that eminently 

18 So called in Apostol. Constitut. ii. 30. I may observe, in passing, that 
Deacons in modern times being young men with little practical experience, 
and their office being regarded as a mere stepping-stone to a higher order, 
we have but a shadow of that diaconate which was held by such men as 
Stephen, Philip, Laurentius, Athanasius, and others, in ancient times. The 
custom of having only seven Deacons to a city, however large it may 
be (Canon 14, Neo-Csesarea), helped to give dignity to the diaconal 
office. 

J 9 1 Pet. ii. 5 ; Exocl. xix. 6. 

20 The Liturgies, as is well known, abound with such mutual benedic- 
tions, etc., as "The Lord be with you: And with thy Spirit." For this 
reason, among many others, a Liturgy " understanded of the people " is highly 
important. Where the laity are deprived of their just part in public worship, 
they lose with it many other rights. 



70 History of the Church. 

Apostolic office of binding and loosing, their cooperation was 
earnestly desired and thankfully acknowledged. 21 

But in proportion as power thus descended and became dis- 
tributed, as it were, among all the members of the Body of 
Christ, there was the greater need that the Bishopric, 22 
tkeEpis- that is, the supreme oversight and superintendence, 
should be exerted in a way to give it an effectual and 
decisive weight. 

The Apostles exercised it in a way that showed their sense 
of its importance. They fixed their residence, as far as pos- 
sible, in the great world centres. Thus, from the cen- 

Ovcrsight, 

kow excr- tral point of Ephesus, S. Paul, for three years, super- 

cised. 

vised the Church work going on throughout the whole 
Province of Asia. They made regular visitations, as frequent 
and as long as circumstances would permit, to the several 
Churches of their planting. In such visitations, the Presbyter- 
bishops were assembled, exhorted, admonished ; discipline was 
administered when need so required ; ministers were ordained, 
faith confirmed, and gifts bestowed by the laying on of hands. 
Questions of order, too hard for the local authorities, were then 
definitely settled. In this way, unity and uniformity were suffi- 
ciently secured. What Apostles ordained in one place, they 
had power and opportunity, if they deemed it advisable, to 
ordain in all. 23 

And when, from the continuous enlargement of their re- 
spective fields of labor, the Apostles saw less than was 

Legates 

of the desirable of the Churches under their charge, thev ex-' 

Apostles. .... . ° J 

ercised their oversight by written Epistles, or by send- 
ing one or other of their Colleagues or Companions, as Angels, 

21 In this paragraph I refer chiefly to Acts, i. 26 ; vi. 5 ; xv. 23 ; 1 Cor. 
xiv. i&; 2 Cor. ix. 6-7; 1 Cor. v. 3-5; 2 Cor. ii. 5-10 : passages which are 
confirmed in the interpretation I have given them by the uniform practice of 
the Church in the second and third centuries. 

22 Acts, i. 20. See Chapin's View ... of the Prim. Ch. ch. xv. 
2 3Acts, xv. 36; xiv. 21-23; xviii. 23; xx. 17-35; 2 Cor. xiii. 2; 1 Cor. 

xi. 34; xvi. I, 2. 



uc- 

CESSORS. 



Church Government. Ji 

Messengers, or Apostles for the nonce. Persons thus sent were 
clothed with full authority, and it was required that they should 
be received and treated as the elder Apostles themselves. 24 

Finally, towards the end of their career, when the elder 
Apostles knew that the time of their departure was at their s 
hand, they in no case left their peculiar powers to the 
Presbyter-bishops, or to the local congregations ; 2S but, accord- 
ing to the uniform testimony of the early Church, assigned 
Timothy to Ephesus, though there was in that city a numerous 
band of Presbyter-bishops ; Titus to Crete ; Linus, Cletus, and 
Clemens to Rome; Symeon to Jerusalem, after the death of 
James; Euodius and Ignatius to Antioch ; Polycarp to Smyrna; 
Annianus to Alexandria; and others of their companions to 
other places. They gave to these, moreover, all the supervisory 
powers of the Apostolic office. As we learn from the 

Powers 

Epistles to Timothy and Titus, and from the Book of given to 

them. 

Revelation, they were to see to the selection of fit men 

for Presbyter-bishops and Deacons ; to ordain such as were 

approved ; to try such as were accused ; to rebuke, exhort, 

2 4Acts, xix 22; 2 Cor. xii. 18; viii. 23; 1 Cor. xvi. 10. 

2 5 S. Jerome's declaration, in the Epistle ad Evangelum (and in Com- 
ment, on Tit. i. 7), that " after contentions arose, one saying, I am of Paul, 
another, I of Apollos, etc., it was decreed through the whole world, that one 
of the Presbyters should be elected and placed over the others, and to him the 
whole care of the Church should pertain, that the seeds of schism might be 
removed," puts the origin of See-Bishops rather earlier than I have done; for 
such "contentions arose" quite early in Apostolic times. This famous 
Epistle, so often quoted in part, ought to be read as a whole. It would then 
be seen that S. Jerome's object is to show that a Presbyter is superior to a 
Deacon in priesthood — sacerdotio esse majorem ; and that in respect of the 
same priesthood, Presbyters, Bishops, and Apostles are equal : a point uni- 
versally conceded. This fact considered, his concluding words give the sum 
of his view of the ministry : " What Aaron, and his sons, and the Levites, 
were in the Temple, the same are Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons in the 
Church." The case of the Church of Alexandria, mentioned by S. Jerome 
and Ambrosiaster, is somewhat peculiar; but I reserve the discussion of it for 
mother place. See Book II. ch. 10, of this History. See also Chapin, 



72 History of the Church. 

admonish, with all authority; to expose the pretentions of false 
apostles ; to exercise, in short, the same oversight and rule which 
the first generation of Church rulers had exercised before them. 

In this way the Bishopric, or Apostolate, as commissioned 
by our Lord after the Resurrection, had its own seed within it, 
The Epis- an d was everywhere transmitted and acknowledged as 
C °eif-Lr- the s °l e supreme governing and ordaining power. The 
fetuatmg. on iy power not thus transmitted was that of working 
miracles. But that, as we have seen, was given before, not after 
the Resurrection ; and belonged then, as at all other times, to 
the extraordinary " prophetic office " : namely, to that kind of 
preaching which prepares the way for a new system, or lays the 
foundations. 

About the time that this beginning of a succession was made 
among the Gentile Churches, S. James, the first Bishop of Jeru- 
Tkree salem, died, and Symeon, a cousin of our Lord, was 
elected in his place. In the generation that immedi- 
ately followed, there is one inspired witness of the order then 
existing, and two uninspired. 

S. John, addressing the mystical Seven Churches of Asia, 
exhorts or reproves their respective Angels, a term etymolog- 
ically equivalent to the word Apostles, and, as used by 
the first the writer of the Apocalypse, implying the same as 
Bishops in the modern sense. A question arises, how- 
ever, whether the severe rebukes which prove these Angels to 
have been responsible heads of the seven Churches do not also 
prove them to have been subordinate to the Apostle S. John. 26 
To this the obvious answer is that S. John merely writes " what 
the Spirit saith," in the character of a Prophet or Divine. In 
other words, it is not John who calls the seven Angels to account ; 
it is the Lord himself. 27 There is nothing in the Apocalypse, 

26 Thiersch, the Irvingite historian, uses this supposed fact to prove the 
existence of his threefold Episcopate, Apostles, Angels, Bishops. If the fact 
were as he supposes, it would not prove the three distinct orders of the Episco- 
pate ; it would merely point to a metropolitan system. 

2 7 Rev. i. 11. 



Church Government. 73 

therefore, to prove the existence of any office on earth, at that 
time, superior in order to that of the seven Angels. On the 
contrary, the fact that the Lord himself addresses them, and not 
the Apostle, rather proves them to have been in a position of 
accountability to the Lord alone. 

The second witness of this period, S. Clement of Rome, by 
referring to the sacerdotal analogy of High-Priests, Priests, and 
Levites, or to the military analogy of Prefects, Chili- s. clement 

the second 

archs, Centurions, and other officers, shows incidentally, witness. 
and therefore the more powerfully, that the principle of subor- 
dination, or prelacy, was acknowledged in the Min- p r iesti y 
istry. In the same incidental way he mentions Rulers anal °gy- 
and Presbyters in one place, Bishops and Deacons in Military. 
another. 28 He testifies also that the order of succession was settled 
by Divine Providence and by Apostolic authority* 9 "The 
Apostles knew from our Lord Jesus Christ that conten- Divinely 

settled. 

tion would arise about the name of the Bishopric \ for 
which reason, being possessed of perfect foreknowledge, they 
appointed the said (Bishops and Deacons), and gave order for 
the future, how, when these fell asleep, other approved men 
might be set in their place." This, he adds, was settled with 
the consent of the whole Church. It is plain, therefore, that 
the provision against schism, which some have represented as 
made by Presbyters after the Apostolic age, was made in reality 
by the Apostles, under Divine inspiration, and was received 
universally. 

S. Ignatius of Antioch, whose ministerial life had been for 
thirty years contemporaneous with that of S. John, is 

S. Ignatius 

still more positive in his testimony. That " the Epis- the third 

r J r Witness. 

copate is represented by him as the Divinely appointed 

pillar which sustains the whole ecclesiastical fabric," 30 is now 

23 S. Clem. Ep. Cap. i. xlii. xliv. 

2 9 I quote S. Clement only for this point, because the sentence, in relation 
to other points, is somewhat confused. 

3° Dr. Hase, Hist, of Christian Church, \ 59. This writer adds, and Dr. 
Schaff follows him in the assertion, that the Episcopate " much needed his 

4 



74 History of the Church. 

universally conceded by intelligent historians. It is therefore 
hardly necessary to cite his words : it is enough to remark that 
his witness, on this subject, is unaffected by the controversy with 
regard to the genuineness of certain portions of his remaining 
Epistles. 31 

A question still remains, as to how far the Episcopate, thus 
Metro- settled, assumed in Apostolic times that metropolitan 
System. form which it afterwards bore, and to which in all ages 
it naturally, and perhaps logically, tends. 32 

It is certain, that among the ancients the Mother City was 
not only a centre of social and political influence, but an object 
Mother of those loyal, reverential, affectionate feelings, which 
Clttcs ' in modern times we associate rather with the word 
fatherland, or mother country. By devoting so much of their 
time as they did to these great centres, the Apostles availed 
themselves of this state of things, and, it may be said, gave 
their countenance to it. They made the centres of religious 
influence coincident with those of social or political power. It 
was natural, therefore, that whatever equality might exist among 
Bishops, Angels, or Apostles, as such, considerable inequalities 

earnest commendations ; " namely, that it was a novelty, and therefore needed 
defence. If earnest commendation of a thing is proof of its novelty, we shall 
have to regard the veiy Faith itself as a novelty ; for there is not a writer, from 
S. Paul down, who does not earnestly commend it. 

3 1 Dr. Hase, \ 73, fully admits this ; see also Cureton, Corpus Ignatia- 
niun; and Schaff, Hist., etc. 

3 2 Dr. Schaff urges that the logical tendency of Episcopacy is to absolute 
centralization, i. e., Popery. So would I say, if this centralizing tendency had 
not been controlled by our Lord himself in the appointment of twelve brethren, 
who were to call no man father, i. e., pope, upon earth, but were to hold to 
their Head in Heaven. In other words, everything in the Church tends to a 
centre or point; the only question is, where that centre is to be found. Some 
say in Rome. We say in Heaven. Some make " the kingdom " perfect here 
on earth. We regard it as imperfect here, and therefore wait for " His appear- 
ing and Kingdom." To this I might add that those who represent the original 
government of the Church as Presbyterian, yet acknowledge that it changed 
into Episcopal in one or two generations. How can they escape the inference 
that Presbyterianism logically tends to Episcopacy. 



Church Government. 75 

should arise as to the influence and weight of their respective 
Sees. 

Thus James, one of the last and least of the Apostles, came 
to have a certain precedence over Peter and John. 33 Doubtless, 
it was because he was the head of the Mother Church. 

Precedence 

In after times Jerusalem, which had been first, came to o/jerusa- 

lem. 

be last, in point of influence among the chief Churches. 

As soon as this was the case, the Bishop of Jerusalem ranked 

accordingly. 

The metropolitan system, therefore, and in fact the whole 
system of precedence that obtained in the early Church, was a 
natural development from the twofold representative 

. Two/old 

character of Bishops. As representatives of Christ, the character 

of Bishops. 

Head, all Bishops were " brethren," "colleagues," 
peers. As representatives of particular Churches, or cities, they 
could allow certain distinctions of honor or of power to grow 
up among them. Differences of this kind developed, and were 
more clearly systematized and defined, as the way was gradually 
opened for provincial or general Councils. 

It was, in fact, one form in which the lay element, as it has 
been sometimes called — the influence of numbers, masses, posi- 
tion, and other things that have weight in secular Rule of 
affairs — gradually made itself to be felt in the govern- Precedence - 
ment of the Church. Hence the rule of precedence that pre- 
vailed, and which was firmly maintained by the six Ecumenical 
Councils, was that Bishops should rank according to the im- 
portance of their Sees. Rome, indeed, contended for a different 
rule. Foundation by S. Peter presented, in her judgment, a 
superior claim. But in spite of her efforts, ecclesiastical prece- 
dence followed the changes of political, and instead of Jerusa- 

33 This appears in the Council, Acts, xv. The placing of his name before 
those of Cephas and John, Gal. ii. 9, is an argument of a certain precedence ; 
though I do not think it amounts to anything more than an acknowledgment 
of the importance of the Church which he represented. The same is to be 
said of the prayer pro fidelibus in the Ap. Constitutions, where the Bishop of 
Jerusalem is prayed for before him of Rome and Antioch. 



*/o History of the Church, 

lem, Cgesarea, Antioch, Rome, Alexandria, the order of the 
Churches came in time to be — Rome, Constantinople, Alexan- 
dria, Antioch, and, last of all, Jerusalem. 

All this, however, . belongs to later history. In Apostolic 
How times the question of precedence was little thought of; 

' and, so far as it was considered, it seems to have heen 
determined by the rules of equity and common-sense. 



CHAPTER XII. 

DOCTRINE AND HERESIES. 



When the Disciples were sent two by two before the face of 
the Lord, as prophets of the Kingdom, their prophesying was 
The summed up in the one pregnant phrase, The Kingdom 

of Heaven is at hand. In the same way, when the 
Apostles went forth, their evangel, gospel, god-spell, or good 
news, was the announcement and explication of the simple his- 
toric fact, that the Head of that promised Kingdom had truly 
come and done the work which the Prophets of the Old Testa- 
ment had so long before predicted. More briefly stated : it was 
Christ come simply God manifest in the Flesh. This involved the 
mthe Flesh. ver j t y t ] iat jj e had been born, had lived, suffered, died, 
and especially had risen from the dead, and ascended up in 
triumph to the Right Hand of the Majesty on high. To witness 
to this truth was the office for which the Church had been cre- 
ated. To receive the same in its fulness ; to embrace it with all 
the heart, all the soul, all the mind ; to measure all other truth 
by it, making it the " analogy," or " rule of faith " ; to discern 
it in its moral and intellectual, as well as spiritual bearings j 1 in 

1 Examples of this measuring of all truth and duty by "the Gospel," are 
Rom. vi. 1-14; 1 Cor. xv. I, 3, 11, 12, etc.; Ephes. v. 22,33; Coloss. ii. 12; 
iii. 1-5 ; 1 Pet. iv. I ; I John, iv. 2. 



Doctrine and Heresies. jj 

short, to admit it wholly, in all its consequences, as a living 
principle pervading the whole life, was to be the substance of 
right faith, and the sum of sound doctrine to the end of time. 
But nature is always partial or one-sided in its apprehension 
of the Truth. Measuring everything by a standard of human 
imperfection, it is naturally eclectic, choosing its own 
ground or point of view, and holding one half of a drifts of 

Heresy. 

doctrine, to the denial, exclusion, or overlaying of 

other parts equally vital and essential. For, in the reception 

of any fact or doctrine, almost everything depends upon the 

standing-point assumed. A man of transcendental turn, relying 

exclusively on his own spiritual intuitions, will despise spirit- 

the sensible evidences, the miracles, the sacraments, 

the Scriptures, the external body of Religion. Such men fall 

into gnostic, mystic, transcendental, or spiritualist heresies. 

Another class of men believe in naught but rational induction, 

or logical demonstration. Like the Jews of old, they are always 

demanding i'a sign." Such men are apt to become Ration- 

positivists, rationalists, their pravity taking sometimes 

a negative or skeptical, and sometimes, when the mind grows 

weary of denying, an arbitrarily positive form. But, to the 

great mass of men, Religion is a matter of feeling, or 

• . . Sensuous. 

affection, rather than of speculative insight, or rational 
conviction; and this bias, taking sometimes an enthusiastic, 
sometimes an aesthetic, or sometimes a legal and moral turn, 
leads in its excess to a numerous class of sensuous heresies. 

Such being the well-known proclivities of the human heart, 
it pleased our Lord, in giving His Truth to men, to provide at 
the same time a divine standing-point from which the Divine 
truth was to be regarded. Those who believed were to stand £° int - 
be baptized. As there was one Spirit, there was to be one Body. 
Those who held to the doctrine of the Apostles were to hold to 
their fellowship. The Church, in short, was appointed to be 
the pillar and ground of the Truth. 

But even in the best balanced minds, and from whatever 
ground or point of view, there will be more or less of a ten- 



78 History of the Church. 

dency to one or other of the extremes above mentioned. In 
Necessary this life we can know but in part ; we can see but 
Differences. t h r ough a gj ass d ar kly. According, therefore, to the 
inherent peculiarities of each individual nature, there will be a 
Three disposition to look at Truth through the sensuous, the 

"***' rational, or the transcendental glass, and thus to fall 
into partial or heretical opinions. This leaning, however, when 
guarded and controlled by mutual charity, and by a ground of 
unity sufficiently defined, is not only harmless, but wholesome; 
bringing out the one Truth in a greater variety of aspects, and 
making it intelligible to a greater variety of minds. 

Of this wholesome development in particular directions, 
Types of S. John, S. Paul, and S. Peter were the most promi- 
Do. trine. nent representative in Apostolic times. S. John de- 
lighted to contemplate the absolute, simple Truth : the Truth as 
seen in itself, as seen in God. He was therefore the type of the 
theologian or divine. S. Paul presented the Truth rather in its 
manifold relations to waywardness and weakness of the human 
understanding 2 He is the type of the able reasoner, the versa- 
tile expounder, the ready controversialist, the profound and 
skilful teacher. S. Peter, endowed by nature with affections 
intensely human, found it more congenial to " taste the Lord as 
gracious," than to behold Him with eagle eye as the Light and 
s. John. Life. To S. John, Christ was the incarnate " Word " ; 
s. Paul. to S. Paul, "the Apostle and High-Priest of our pro- 
s'. Peter. fession " \ to S. Peter, "the Bishop and Shepherd of 
our souls." S. John, from his high pitch of contemplation, 
addressed the body of believers as " little children" ; S. Paul 
wrestled with them on more equal terms, as "men" and 
" brethren "; S. Peter singled out one class or another, as 

2 On the subject of this paragraph the German critics have shown much 
solid as well as brilliant ingenuity: some of them, such as Baur, with a view 
to magnify different ways of seeing into differences of belief. To the student, 
who will take the pains to trace, not merely the different modes of thought or 
expression among the sacred writers, but their wonderful harmony, the study 
of this subject will be found well worthy of attention. 



Doctrine and Heresies. 79 

husbands, wives, masters, servants, elders, juniors, or when he 
addressed them as a mass, it was with the pastoral word "be- 
loved." Without entering into all the distinctions of this kind, 
which have been pointed out by critics, and considerably exag- 
gerated, it may be observed, in short, that while each of these 
great teachers presented the whole and living Truth, S. John 
dwells chiefly on the Incarnation as a mysterious whole, a 
"light" illumining all other lights; S. Paul on the Death and 
Resurrection, especially the latter, as the logical basis of all 
doctrine, all morals, and all "glory" ; S. Peter on the living, 
toiling, suffering, bleeding, dying Christ, as the "precious" 
example, the precious ransom, the irresistible appeal to all noble, 
earnest, tender, and generous affections. To these 

_, . . . S. James. 

S. James is sometimes added, as representing a fourth 
position. To judge from his Epistle, he is less a representative 
of doctrine than of that reactionary appeal to conscience and 
common -sense, which becomes necessary when doctrinal discus- 
sion has gone too far ; when orthodoxy, in fact, is made a sub- 
stitute for faith. To heated polemics, therefore, in times of 
dogmatic strife, this remarkable production has seemed a mere 
"epistle of straw." 3 In other times, and under other circum- 
stances, amid the lip-worship and licentiousness of a self-seeking 
age, it comes up as a sharp point of that ancient rock of com- 
mon truth underlying all religion, the Sermon on the Mount. 

Differences of this kind may be allowed for, without imagin- 
ing anything analogous to separate schools or parties in the 
Apostolic Church. Pauline and Petrine factions may 

Harmony 

undoubtedly have existed; but the great teachers of the 

J ° Apostles. 

knew nothing of them, except to repudiate them. 
They understood themselves, and understood one another. 
It may be observed, moreover, by way of counterpoise to 

3 Luther, in his impatience, so characterized it. It was under other 
circumstances that Butler and Bull drew from it appropriate lessons for the 
times. Neander is so unappreciative of this Epistle that he arbitrarily sup- 
poses it to have been written before James was thoroughly acquainted with 
the Gospel. 



So History -of the Church. 

the distinctions above mentioned, that each of the great Apos- 
tles glides occasionally, in his style, into the peculiarities of the 
others. S. John, for instance, dwells on the sensible manifesta- 
Four ti° n of the Word of Life; S. Paul frequently pauses 

lOS * el to admire "the mystery of godliness"; S. Peter 

speaks of "the Word," that is, the Truth, as the regenerating 
power. The same may be said of the differences of the four 
Gospels. While it is true that the Man and Prophet appears 
most prominently in S. Matthew, the King in S. Mark, the 
Priest in S. Luke, and the essential Deity in S. John, 4 yet there 
is no one of the four Evangelists in which all do not appear. 
There are distinctions, in short, but no antagonisms. 

To this general account of the great types of doctrinal 

development, 5 it is necessary to add that the Apostles, like 

their Master, were seed-sowers of the Truth, not fram- 

Scope of ' ' 

Doctrinal ers of systems. To give their teaching, therefore, in 

History. . t 

other language than their own, comes hardly within the 
legitimate province of the historian. The attempt has been 
made, indeed, by innumerable modern critics ; and under the 
heads of the theology, anthropology, soteriology, ecclesiology, 
and eschatology of the sacred writers, valuable contributions 
have been made to the cause of biblical interpretation. Yet 
none of these efforts represent, or in the nature of things can 
represent, more than the amount of truth seen from particular 
points of view. 6 As contributions to sacred criticism they all 

4 Hence the application to the four Evangelists of the four faces respec- 
tively of the " living creatures " in the Apocalypse, the man, the lion, the ox, 
the eagle. 

5 The word development has been much abused by Dr. Newman and oth- 
ers, in modern times ; yet I know of no word to substitute for it in the history 
of doctrine. The term, in fact, is harmless, if we are careful not to confound 
development — which is the opening, defining, and applying of truths con- 
tained in Holy Writ — with corruptions and accretions derived from other 
sources. 

6 Neander is one of the largest-minded and most genial of historic critics 
of this kind; yet, in his " Planting of Christianity," S. Paul, S. John, S. 
Peter, and even our Lord himself, are completely Neanderized. Thiersch, 



Doctrine and Heresies. 8 1 

have their value. As accounts of what the Apostles taught, in 
determination of questions still sub lite, they are worse than 
useless ; giving the garb of historic fact to things which, how- 
ever excellent and ingenious, are nothing more or less than 
private and modern schemes of polemical divinity. 

The History of Apostolic doctrine must confine itself to a 
somewhat narrower range. Not what systems these first Teach- 
ers taught, but what materials, what conditions, what Proper 
elements they left of systems afterwards drawn from ange ' 

them, or put upon them, is the utmost that can be attempted in 
a narrative of facts. 

And these elements may all be considered under four heads : 
i, The Oral Teaching, or tradition of the Apostles; 2, Their 
Creed, or Rule of Faith; 3, Their Inspired Writ- Four 

ings ; 4, The Heresies against which they contended, Heads, 
and which may have influenced more or less the form, style, 
manner, or particular topics of their teaching. 

The Apostles taught orally. Their doctrine, therefore, had 
to be treasured in the memories of believers. If we consider 
how vast the field was, and how many of the laborers j < oral 
in this field must have been, like Apollos, imperfectly Tkaching - 
instructed, it will not appear wonderful that a corrupt tradition 
spread almost as rapidly as the true; and that many things were 
attributed to Apostles for which they were not responsible. 
Thus, S. Paul had hardly left the Church of Thessalonica before 
he learned that his doctrine of Christ's coming had 

Tradition 

been misunderstood. In the same way the traditions soon 

co mt fitccl . 

that flowed into the second century were very soon 
corrupted. They were almost invariably alleged in favor of 
doubtful facts, or heretical opinions. Papias, it is said, took 
great pains to collect the genuine sayings of our Lord. But few 
of these gleanings have remained in the literature of the Church ; 7 

in the same way, has beautifully Irvingized the Doctrine of the Apostles ; a 
thing which would be less objectionable if it were done in a professed " com- 
mentary," or in an Irvingite tract, and not under the garb of history." 
7 See Routh, .Relic/. Sac, vol. i. 

4* 



82 History of the Church. 

and these few give little occasion to regret that the rest have 
perished. 

Tradition, in the sense of the general spirit or drift of Apos- 
tolic teaching, or instructions embodied in particular observ- 
Tradition ances, were of a more enduring character, and exerted, 
m gen ai. w ithout doubt, a greater influence. Thus, the sacred- 
ness of the Lord's Day, the practice of infant baptism, the 
authority of the Old Testament, the use of Creeds, and other 
things of like character, might easily remain when mere words 
or phrases would be forgotten or perverted. The same might 
be said of everything in which the second century was unani- 
mous. The mind of an age, however, is so entirely assimilated 
by the age which follows, that, in general, tradition means little 
more than the prevailing sentiment of the day in which it is 
appealed to. We find, accordingly, that even in matters of 
practical observance, the Apostolic tradition came soon to 
be suspected, unless it were supported by Apostolic writings. 8 

The first bulwark raised against the corruption of tradition 
was probably in the form of a brief Creed, or Rule of Faith. 9 
ii. The Something of this sort is frequently alluded to in the 
reed. New Testament, in such expressions as " the form of 
sound words," "the Gospel," or evangel, " the faith once (for 
all) delivered to the Saints," or " the doctrine " into which they 
"were delivered " ; I0 S. Paul, especially, not only referring to 
such a " Gospel " once preached, but declaring it so unalterable 
that neither he nor an angel from heaven could deviate from it. 
The natural outline of this summary would be suggested by the 

8 S. Cyprian, in the question of re-baptizing heretics, would acknowledge 
no tradition but that which he found in Scripture. 

9 1 use the phrase, as a convenient one, without any reference to contro- 
versies on the subject. In the common-sense use of words, anything once 
fixed as a matter of belief becomes practically a rule of faith. The brief sum- 
mary of the Gospel, therefore, which all believers received, would be in a 
peculiar, but not exclusive sense, the rule of faith. See Hagenbach, Hist, of 
Doctrines, \ 20. 

10 Rom. vi. 17 ; literally, " the type of doctrine into which ye were deliv 
ered." 



Doctrine and Heresies. 83 

first formal act of faith. Every person admitted in the Name. 

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 

into the Church Catholic, by Baptism, for the Remis- Baptismal 

Faith. 

sion of Sins, with a view to the Resurrection of the 
Dead and the Life everlasting, would of course be required to 
say "credo" to all this; and that he might say it in good 
faith, would be instructed into its meaning. But those few 
words, briefly qualified or explained, make up the outline and 
the substance of the Creeds or Symbols of all ages. Such an 
outline, moreover, committed to memory by every believer, 
would be a "rule of faith"; that is, a touchstone of sound 
doctrine, alike available to learned and unlearned, to readers 
and simple hearers. 

In the absence of any direct evidence to the contrary," it 
seems most probable that the filling up of this outline was not 
always in the same words ; but that the forms of symbols 
confession were marked from the beginning by the numerous - 
same diversity in language, with the same identity in substance, 
which we find among the symbols of a somewhat later period. 
By slight verbal variations shades of meaning might be expressed 
in one, which were not contained in others. Like the four 
Gospels, or the four ancient Liturgies, the creeds would thus 
be mutually completed, guarded, and explained. 

But a safeguard would be needed against corruptions of the 
Creeds themselves ; and still more against corruptions of the 
larger, more diffuse, and more minute instructions of 
the Lord, and of His Apostles. The four Gospels there- Sacked 

Writings 

fore were written ; not early, nor all at once, but at cer- 
tain intervals, under varied circumstances, by different writers, 
and yet with a harmony absolutely demonstrative of a divine 
authorship. Of these S. Matthew's was probably put forth before 

11 Bp. Bull contends for two primitive Creeds — that of Jerusalem in the 
East, and that of the Apostles in the West. I can see no reason why there 
should not have been more. On the general subject, see History of Creeds, 
by Rev. W. W. Harvey, M.A. ; and Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian 
Church, x. iii. 5. 



84 History of the Church. 

the Apostles left Jerusalem, and possibly in Hebrew, or Aramaic. 
Gospeh. S. Mark's, indited under the auspices of S. Peter, 
is of uncertain date. S. Luke's, and its continuation, 
the Acts of the Apostles, appear to have been written either 
during or shortly after the first imprisonment of S. Paul. The 
Gospel of S. John was stored up in the bosom of the beloved 
Disciple till near the close of the first century. We learn from 
S. Luke that many had taken in hand to write narratives of this 
kind ; so that a bulwark was needed against unreliable Script- 
ures, as well as against corrupted forms of oral tradition. 12 

The Catholic Epistles seem all to have been the fruit of the 
later years of their respective writers. The Epistles of S. Paul 
other were written to particular Churches, or persons, on 

criptures. p ar ticular emergencies ; and may be dated from in- 
ternal evidence with considerable precision. 13 The Apocalypse, 
which appeared about the year ninety-five, has been appropri- 
ately placed at the close of the sacred' series : its splendid and 
mystic imagery forming, as it were, the great Altar-window 
of the Temple of Inspiration. 

In addition to these sacred writings, the Scriptures of the 
Old Testament were earnestly commended to the first 

A llegorical J 

interpreter- age of believers, as inspired, and profitable for doc- 
trine ; and in the interpretation of them, the "testi- 
mony of Jesus" was made the "spirit of prophecy." The 
„,, ^ consequence was, that "the rule of faith" became 

The lesti- ± 

vwny of also the rule of interpretation. That analogical pro- 

Jesusthe ... • 

spirit of cess, by which, in reading the Old Testament, we 

Prophecy. 

almost unconsciously transmute the letter into the 
spirit, seeing Christ everywhere, became the fixed habit of the 
Church mind ; and occasionally degenerated into frivolous alle- 

12 The uninspired writings of this period are the first Epistle of S. Clement, 
and perhaps the second : possibly, also, the Epistl of S. Barnabas, and the 
Pastor of Hermas. The spurious writings, ascribed to this age, were com- 
posed in the second century, or later. For a list of them, see Foulkes's Man- 
ual of Ecclesiastical History. 

T 3 See Chap. iv. of this Book. 



Doctrine and Heresies. 85 

gorizing. 14 The historical importance of this fact can hardly 
be overrated. For on the mode of interpretation favored by 
any age, its theological drift is in a great measure determined. 
It may be observed, that the Gnostics had little reverence for the 
Old Testament Scriptures ; they used them largely, however, 
and applied both to them and to the writings of the New Testa- 
ment, the allegorical method. 13 But their allegorizing was purely 
arbitrary ; that of the Christians was kept within bounds by the 
dominant influence of "the analogy of the faith." In both 
cases it was application of the Scriptures rather than strict inter- 
pretation. This is seen in the fact that diverse applications of 
the same text, so long as they did not contradict the commonly 
received doctrines, were not regarded as contradicting one an- 
other. 

In the Apostolic age, as in the Church since, the develop- 
ment, definition, or application of doctrine waited on oppor- 
tunity, and had more or less of a defensive character jy. 
against errors, or erroneous tendencies of the times. eresies. 
No heretics are mentioned by name in the New Testament, 
with the exception of the Nicolaitans ; and, perhaps, Hyme- 
nals and Alexander, whose "shipwreck of faith," however, 
may have been simple apostasy. The Diotrephes, censured by 
S. John in his second Epistle, was probably an ambitious Pres- 
byter, or a tyrannizing Bishop. Heretical opinions are more 
frequently alluded to. But as they are not described, and are 
combated only in their elementary principles, it cannot be ascer- 
tained how far any of them had assumed a systematic shape. 

Among the Greeks and philosophic Jews, there was an arro- 

r 4 The Epistle to the Hebrews exhibits a severe moderation in the use of 
this method. The Epistle of Barnabas, which may belong, however, to the 
second century, indulges in it with the utmost freedom : so, also, the Shepherd 
of Hernias. The Epistle of S. Clement and the Epistles of S. Ignatius show 
less of it. S. Irenseus, and the Fathers after him, carry it occasionally to 
excess. Origen developed it into a more systematic shape. 

J 5 For ingenious specimens of this perversion, see Simon Magus in 
Reftitat. Omn. Hceresium, S. Hippolyti, lib. vi. 



86 History of the Church. 

gant and pretentious speculative spirit, which judged all re- 
ligions by its own instincts or intuitions, discerned 

Gnosis. . . 

some good in all, and was disposed to frame, out of 
materials drawn from all, a more scientific system. By the vo- 
taries of this gnosis, or " science falsely so called," the principle 
Eva in that evil inheres in matter* was an axiom universally 

admitted. They despised the physical world as the 
creation of some inferior and perhaps evil Power. The body they 
considered a mere incumbrance, instead of holding it in honor 
(as something pertaining) to the completeness of our humanity. 17 
The Soul They regarded the soul as a sort of captive, and looked 
a Captive. ^ QY -^ d e i[ verance m t ne entire destruction of the body 

after death, and during life in complete abstraction from it. 
Hence great austerities among some. Hence an opinion among 
others, that the distinction of good and evil, so far as this 
world is concerned, is a mere thesis, or arbitrary appointment 
devised by evil Powers. Where such maxims prevailed, a denial 
of the resurrection of the body,** or an assertion of a spiritual res- 
urrection only, would necessarily follow. The doctrine of the 
Incarnation would either be denied or subtly explained away. 
Among efforts of this kind the docetic theory, namely, 

Docetce ...... 

Christ a pure spirit with a fantasmal or appari- 
tional body, was one of the earliest and most popular. 
From numerous expressions in the New Testament it is highly 
probable that the idea of a pleroma, or fulness of God's pres- 
ence, from which all bodily existence is excluded ; 19 of " endless 

16 Opposed by such passages as I Tim. iv. 4. 

J 7 Such, seems to me the meaning of the original in Col. ii. 23 ; the word 
translated " satisfaction" being equivalent to completeness, and that rendered 
" flesh " standing often (as in S. John, i. 14) for man. 

18 1 Cor. xv. 12. 

J 9 To which S. Paul opposes the truth, that in Christ the fulness of the 
Godhead (pleroma) dwells bodily. Col. ii. 9. This chapter, the most suggest- 
ive on the subject, can hardly be understood without careful reference to the 
original. Other Anti-Gnostic passages are (perhaps) 1 Tim. i. 4; iv. 1-5 ; vi. 
20 ; 1 John, i. 1-3 ; iv. 1-3 ; 2 Peter, ii. ; Jude. See Hammond, on the New 
Testament. 



Doctrine and Heresies. 8 7 

genealogies, ' ' that is, processions or emanations of ceons, angels, 
principalities , powers, a long chain of mediators between the 
world and God ; and, in short, all the elementary notions which 
afterwards entered into the various Gnostic systems, were in 
vogue among the Greeks or Hellenizing Hebrews, and were 
started into activity by the preaching of the Gospel. 

To Simon Magus, a philosopher and wonder-worker of no 
ordinary powers, and to Samaria, the home of mixed Simon 
races and mixed creeds, tradition has assigned the agus ' 

earliest attempt at a definite Gnostic system. His views come 
down to us encumbered with the accretions of later times. 
"From Sige, Silence, the invisible, incomprehensible, Stge. 

eternal root of all things, sprang two mighty powers r the one 
above called Nous, the universal directing mind, which Nous, 

is of the male sex ; the other below, a female, Epmoia, Epinoia. 
or intelligence, by which all things are generated." 20 From 
these two roots sprang four others, similarly, in pairs. The 
story that Simon identified Helen, his concubine, with Helen 
of Troy and other female firebrands of antiquity, and made her 
a sort of impersonation of that "lost sheep" wandering here 
below, Epinoia or intelligence, looks like a genuine tradition, 
and accords with the radically Antinomian character of most of 
the early sects. To him the world was evil, society evil, mar- 
riage evil. The spirit, therefore, that rebels against law and 
order, was, from his point of view, the imprisoned divine spark 
struggling to be free. He availed himself largely of the lan- 
guage of the Old Testament, putting his own meaning upon it : 
and borrowed from Christianity some notions of redemption. 
He represented himself to be the great Power of God — the 
Father to Samaritans, the Son to Jews, the Holy Ghost to 
Gentiles — come into the world for the recovery of the "lost 
sheep. ' ' 

Dositheus and Menander were likewise Samaritans, and en- 

20 Hippolytus quotes from Simon at some length ; and his account of the 
heresy is probably the most accurate that has come down to us. 



88 History of the Church, 

deavored in like manner to appropriate to themselves the 
Dosithcus, character of redeemers. The Nicolaitanes, 21 referred 
Ni?££f- er ' t0 m tne Apocalypse, were Gnostics only in the larger 
tancs. sense of the word ; professing that kind of gnosis, or 

superior light, which makes all bodily acts indifferent, and 
regards all things as lawful. They were equally opposed to the 
moral and the ceremonial law. 

Heresies of this kind sprang from the indulgence of a pro- 
fane speculative spirit. They are interesting as showing that 
Historic the advent of the Gospel did not find the world slum- 
" l * 0i '" bering, but awake and completely armed, ready not 
only to contest every inch of ground, but to avail itself for this 
purpose of weapons drawn from the armory of Christianity 
itself. 

Towards sensuous or carnal errors, a class which tends less to 
contradict than to overlay and corrupt the faith, there was a 
Sensuous most decided proclivity among the Corinthian Chris- 
eresies. t j ans ^ showing itself in an over-estimate of "gifts," 
in a tendency to man-worship, in party and sect spirit, in desire 
to "judge" and "reign," and in a disorderly state of things 
generally. 22 The love of novelty and excitement had 

Sch ism. 

much to do with this. Towards the end of the cen- 
tury it had grown to such an extent that a large party in Corinth 
proposed to make the ministry not only an elective, but a rota- 
tory office. 23 The same spirit showed itself elsewhere in fleshly 

21 They got their name, it is said, from Nicolaus, one of the seven Dea- 
cons. See Euseb. iii. 29. That the Antinomian spirit early availed itself of 
pretensions to knowledge, gnosis, which exempted its possessors from ordinary 
restraints, is obvious from the use of the word " knowledge ; ' throughout the 
whole of 1 Cor. viii. 

22 1 Cor. iii. 1, 3, 4, 21 ; iv. 3, 8, 18; xi. 17-22 ; xiv. 26; et passim : the 
general effect of heresy of this sort seems to be intimated in 1 Cor. iii. 12-15; 
it does not oppose the fundamental faith, but overbuilds it with incongruous 
materials. 

S3 Such seems to me the most rational account of that sedition in Corinth, 
against which S. Clement's letter was written. The Corinthians contended 
for the right to depose Presbyters without any crime proven against them. 



Doctrine and Heresies. 89 

notions of the millennium, and of the nearness of Christ's 
coming. It is remarkable that, as the speculative religionists 
dignified their fancies with the high-sounding name Gifts over- 
of gnosis, so the carnal Corinthians, in magnifying valued. 
"gifts" and splitting up into parties, seem to have thought 
themselves preeminently "spiritual." 24 

The Judaizing spirit, in its proper and pure form, seems to 
have been of a rationalistic kind, springing from low and earthly 
views of the character of the Messiah. 25 In Pharisee judaic 
and Sadducee alike, it was captious and full of doubts. Heresies - 
It stumbled especially at the Divinity of Christ, and at the 
Catholicity of His mission. It was always demanding "signs," 
yet slow of heart to believe when signs were given. But the 
Pentecostal age was unfavorable to the development of a spirit 
of this kind ; so that, beyond a stubborn prejudice against the 
mission of S. Paul, and a disposition to linger in the mere ele- 
ments of Christianity, the Judaizing tendency was effectually 
kept down. The sect in which it finally showed itself 

Nazarines. 

with least aamixture of foreign elements, was the re- 
spectable but little known society of the Nazarenes. Acquies- 
cence in the creed, a cordial reception of the Sermon on the 
Mount, observance of the Law, adherence to the Gospel of S. 
Matthew to the exclusion of later Scriptures, and an undue ele- 
vation of morals above doctrine, seem to have been its promi- 
nent characteristics. Of the three stages of light and 

j -i j i ^ • it 1 Blind Men. 

knowledge described by (Jngen — namely, Jesus the 
son of David, Christ the incarnate Son, and the everlasting 
Word — the Nazarenes preferred to linger in the first and lowest 
stage; "they were blind men, forever crying, jfesus, Son of 
David, have mercy on me." 

As a general rule, the obstructive Judaizers either yielded to 

2 * I Cor. xiv. 37. 

2 5 The real drift of the Judaic spirit is seen in such passages as S. Luke, 
iv. 28; xxii. 70,71; S.John, hi. 9; iv. 48 ; v. 18; vi. 52; viii. 58, 59; xix. 
7; Acts, vii. 52; xi. 3 ; xiii. 45 ; xv. I; xxii. 21, 22; Heb. hi. 3-6; v. 11-14, 
and vi. 1 ; Gal. ii. 13, 16; v. 1-6, etc., etc. 



90 History of the Church, 

the demonstrations of power which accompanied the Gospel, or 
were drawn into a vortex of gnostic and sensuous spec- 

Cerinthus. , 

ulations. Hence a form of gnosis, which was a medley 
of all notions. Cerinthus, as described by Epiphanius, is the 
type of this class. At first a ringleader of the opponents of S. 
Paul, but disabled and not a little disgusted at the course of 
James and Peter in the Council at Jerusalem, he continued to 
maintain in part the inviolability of the Law, but engrafted 
upon it germs from the Samaritan philosophy. The world he 
represented as created and administered by lower gods, or aeons. 
Christ an The heavenly Christ, an aeon of the highest order, 

descended upon the blameless Jesus, the son of Joseph 
and Mary, at His baptism in the Jordan, inhabited Him through 
life, left Him on the Cross, but is to join Him once more and 
reign upon the earth in the kingdom of the Millennium. 26 This 
prurient heresy, which Epiphanius compares to the two-headed 
hairy serpent Sepedon, and which could be sheep or goat at 
will, using the Old Testament against the New, or the New 
against the Old, spread like a plague in Asia Minor, and awak- 
ened the particular abhorrence of S. John. 

The Ebionites were probably Jewish Christians, so called 
from an affectation of poverty — the word Ebion meaning poor 

— or from a leader of that name : either theory being 

Ebion. 

equally probable, and equally incapable of proof. 27 To 
their Judaizing they added the theory of Cerinthus. They are 
somewhat inconsistently described as very strict in morals, and 
decidedly Antinomian ; from which it may be inferred that 
their name covered a considerable variety of sects. 

Thus the corruption of Judaism mingled with that of Hea- 

26 Euseb. iii. 28. Epiphan. Hares, xxviii. 

2 7 The learned criticism that has demolished so many historical characters, 
merely because their names happened to be significant, has been itself demol- 
ished by the exquisite jeu d' esprit of Mr. Rogers, on the names of Newman, 
Wiseman, Wilde, Masterman; to which might be added Goode, Golightly, 
Horsman, and sundry others in the Tractarian and Papal Aggression contro- 
versies. See Eclipse of Faith. 



Doctrine and Hei'esies. 9 1 

thenism, engendering monstrous dreams. The inspired wisdom 
of the Apostles dealt little with heresy as developed Error 
into systems. Writing for all time, they combated the c °inFitft 
evil in its elements, or first principles. For the learned Princi P les - 
curiosity, which delights to trace error through all its kaleido- 
scopic combinations, they had neither leisure nor inclination. 
In the provision, however, that they made against error, we see 
everywhere the proof of a forethought more than human. A 
rule of faith, brief, simple, comprehensive, stating facts rather 
than dogmas, and stamped on the heart and memory of each 
individual believer; a discipline and communion, the same 
everywhere ; and finally, a body of sacred writings, 

, Provision 

easily distinguished from all spurious and apocrvphal agamst 
productions, attested from without, and bearing their 
own witness in themselves, were precisely the things needed to 
separate Church doctrine from the chaos of loose opinions with 
which it might otherwise have been hopelessly confounded. 
The times that followed the first century amply demonstrated 
the wisdom of such threefold provision. As heresy organized, 
it was confronted by a mightier organization, prepared at every 
point to meet it. As it became more methodical, and more 
moral, imitating more closely the tenets and discipline of the 
Church, it was met by a harmony and unity beyond its imita- 
tion. The Church system, in short, was one that took in the 
whole man. It had a spirit and a body. It was equally adapted 
to heart and mind and soul. On whichever side, therefore, 
the flood of heresy might come in, there was a barrier 
provided. 

In this respect, the Apostolic Church differs from all human 
schools. In it, more than in any rival system, order and liberty 
were able to stand together. It did not exclude a 

% m Peculiarity 

variety of standing-points : it simply harmonized of the 

Church. 

them. Peter, in following Christ by a life of adven- 
turous activity, might not be able to comprehend precisely what 
that other "man" was doing, who sat still and mused; he 
might find in "brother Paul " some things perplexing to him : 



92 History of the Church. 

but there was one fellowship, one faith, one baptism, one spirit, 

one body, one hope \ and if there was any point in 

'standpoints which oneness did not as yet appear, it was as easy to 

Jiarmonized. 

distrust one s sell, as to distrust God's promise. Where 
there are different men, there are differences of perfection, dif- 
ferences of attainment. The legitimate course, then, is "whereto 
we have attained, to walk by the same rule, to mind the same 
thing." In short, while unity of faith and practice was thor- 
oughly provided for in the Apostolic system, it was not so pro- 
Tmth in vided as to exclude the necessity of charity, humility, 
Love ' and patience. To " speak the truth in love," or as the 

original seems to mean, to "win the truth by love " was to be 
the pervading principle of all genuine orthodoxy. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

RITES. — OBSERVANCES. MORALS. 

Four thousand years of preparation for the Church, with the 
ritual education of the chosen people, left little need of instruc- 
i n Ritual ti° n m the- decencies of Religion. That men were to 
YiHtmction P ra y m reverent postures, that they were to fast at 
needed. certain times, to celebrate festive occasions with suit- 
able marks of joy, to assemble for common prayer — in short, to 
make worship a social, and therefore an orderly, uniform, and 
duly regulated thing — was sufficiently understood by Jew and 
Greek, by barbarian, Scythian, bond, and free. Our Lord, 
therefore, in His teachings, confined Himself mainly to the 
meaning and spirit of such acts. 1 Leaving the Church to clothe 
herself, from the abundant material which ages of devotion had 
accumulated, in such garments of external sanctity as should be 

1 Matt. vi. 1-18. 



Rites. — Observances. — Morals. 93 

found most in keeping with her doctrine, He merely set an 
example of preferring simple to complicated forms ; of conse- 
crating the obvious and catholic elements of nature, rather than 
symbols of a local, national, or purely conventional character. 

Baptism, that is, washing with water, a symbol of spiritual 
cleansing common to all religions, He substituted for Circum- 
cision, as the rite of initiation, or new birth, into the 

Baptism. 

Divine Name and Family. The addition of white 
robes, salt, lights, exorcism, renunciation, unction, crossing, and 
other graceful and significant though in the aggregate cumbrous 
forms, probably came in by degrees during the post-Apostolic 
period. As in the case of Circumcision, the performance of 
this rite was not confined to the higher orders of the Ministry. 
It is possible that it was performed for the most part by immer- 
sion. Of this, however, there is no sufficient proof, 

The Breaking of Bread, in which bread and wine, the uni- 
versal symbols of nourishment and refreshment, were consecrated 
as means of spiritual growth, was celebrated commonly The Lord's 
on the first day of the week, and .in strict conformity upper. 
with the original Divine Institution. Apostles and Presbyters 
were ministers of this sacrament. The Agape, or Love- 

The Agape. 

feast, was at first, perhaps, celebrated with it. As there 
was danger, however, of confusion arising from this practice, the 
two were separated ; and the custom grew up of having the one 
in the morning and the other in the evening. The Agape, in 
fact, was not merely a symbol of the charity of believers. It 
became in many places an actual daily meal, at which the poorer 
brethren partook of the bounty of the rich. It was a memento 
of that Pentecostal season when believers lived as brothers and 
had all things common. It was easily abused, however, and 
finally had to be done away. Like the kindred cere- The Kiss 
mony, "the kiss of peace," it continued just long °f Peace - 
enough to show that even Apostolic customs may be perverted ; 
that the choicest plants, by neglect, may degenerate into weeds. 
The Laying on of Hands, as a seal of special gifts, was known 
to the ancient Patriarchs, who thereby confirmed the blessing 



94 History of the Church. 

of the birthright ; was practised by Moses when he ordained 
m Joshua his successor : and was sanctioned by our Lord 

The Lay- J 

ingonof for acts of healing or of blessing. In all these senses 

Hands. & b 

it was continued by the Apostles. 2 They laid hands 
on all who had been baptized — a seal of the spiritual birthright, 
as well as of such special "gifts" as the Spirit dispensed to 
each. In this respect it has been aptly termed a kind of lay- 
ordination, a setting apart to that "kingly priesthood" in- 
herent in all believers. It was also the usual rite of ordina- 
tion proper. Mission, also, was given in this way. 3 Being 
eminently a symbol of the kingly office, it was commonly ex- 
ercised, in conformity with patriarchal precedent, by the highest 
order of the Ministry : Presbyters, however, concurring and 
taking part. 4 

Unction, a favorite Eastern symbol of the healing and joy- 
inspiring work of the Spirit, is often alluded to in the New 
Testament. It was employed, at least by the Jewish 

Unction. r J J J 

Christian Church, in the visiting of the sick. 5 There 
is no proof, however, that it was during the first century made a 
part of ordinary ritual. At a later period it was added both to 
Baptism and to the Laying on of Hands. 

Of the ordinary accessories of public worship, the Church 
inherited from the Temple and Synagogue an abundant store of 
Public psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. These, with 
Worship. tne L orc p s Prayer, with the simple baptismal formula cf 
faith, with the solemn celebration of the Lord's Supper and tl e 
Love-feast, with readings from the Old Testament and the New, 
with exercises of the charismata, and with such special prayers 
as were occasionally prompted by particular inspiration, gave 
sufficient variety of occupation to devout hearts and minds. 
That the inspired and rapt utterances of this period melted into 
air, benefiting only a single generation, is not altogether prob- 
able. It is at least possible that the unrivalled and inimitable 

2 Gen. xlviii. 14; Numb, xxvii. 20-23; Mark, vii. 32; xvi. 18; Acts, 
viii. 19; Heb. vi. 2. 

3 Acts, xiii. 3. 4 1 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6. 5 James, v. 14. 



Rites. — Observa n cesr — Morals. 9 5 

beauty of Liturgic language derived its peculiar bloom from Pen- 
tecostal times. 6 In every age devout feeling can clothe 
itself in words more or less appropriate. It is not in 
every age, however, that it has power to crystallize into imper- 
ishable gems. This belongs rather to an age of religious and 
poetic inspiration. If we may judge from the descriptions of 
heavenly worship in the Apocalypse, or from the peculiar solem- 
nity with which the antecedents and concomitants of the Insti- 
tution of the Lord's Supper are given in the Gospel of S. John, 
the mind of that great Apostle was eminently liturgical ; and to 
him, probably, we are indebted for many of the devout utter- 
ances which still resound in all languages from the one end of 
Christendom to the other. 7 

Hours of prayer probably accorded with those in use among 
the Jews, though straitened circumstances soon led Hours 0/ 
to nocturnal or " antelucan " meetings. Easter and rayer. 

Pentecost, with a Fast of greater or less duration just before 
Easter, soon came to be observed. Fasting and prayer Fasts ^ 
preceded ordinations. The Lord's Day took the place 
of the Sabbath, though the latter continued to be Lord's Day. 
respected by Oriental Christians. Places of prayer Places. 
were upper rooms, or private houses, given or loaned for the 
purpose. The distinction, however, between the House of God 8 
and private residences was not suffered to be forgotten. 

As questions of propriety or of particular customs arose, the 
Apostles settled them on general principles, and sometimes in 
accordance with current maxims of the day. 9 They observ- 
were careful to avoid the vice of excessive legislation. ances ' 

Virginity they tolerated, and even encouraged ; 10 but always with 
the proviso that there should be a natural fitness for that state. 

6 Specimens of Liturgic language are to be found all through the New 
Testament: e.g., Luke, i. 46, 68; ii. 14, 29; Acts, iv. 24; Rom. xvi. 24; Rev. 
iv. 8; v. 9; xix. 1-7, etc. 

7 See Palmer, Origines Liturgicce ; Bunsen's Hippolytus, last volume; 
Thiersch, ApostoL Ch. 

8 1 Cor. xi. 22. 9 1 Cor. xi. 1-16. I0 1 Cor. vii. 



9 6 History of the Church. 

Ascetic observances were in like manner allowed ; but with a 

Asceticism. 



strict understanding that these things should in nowise 



interfere with liberty of conscience." So far was this 
respect for private judgment carried, that S. Paul did not even 
enforce the decree of the Council at Jerusalem, with regard to 
meats offered to idols, 12 as an absolute law. He preferred that 
in all such matters men should judge for themselves. 

The morals of the Apostolic Church were framed, of course, 
on the Sermon on the Mount, or on the example of the life of 
Jesus Christ. By the help of persecution, and in the 
freshness of first love, there was perhaps a more gen- 
eral approximation to this high standard than Christendom has 
since exhibited. A community, however, just rescued from the 
stews of idolatry, and which lived in a moral atmosphere reek- 
ing with heathen abominations, was subject to terrible lapses at 
times, followed by gusts of passionate repentance. 13 In such 
cases delinquents were cut off from communion, but not from 
hope. 14 The Christians in Corinth were either worse than in 
other places, or being more tenderly loved by S. Paul were more 
sharply reprehended. In the Jewish Christian Church, and in 
many of the Churches in Asia Minor, there was a rapid decline. 
It is to be observed, however, that the light which reveals the 
faults of that period is the pure white light of uncompromising 
truth; and that many of the sins into which Christians fell were 
such as the best heathen hardly considered sins at all. What 
S. Paul looked upon as abominable, Cato would have regarded 
as natural and proper. 

With social and political problems the Church did not 
concern itself. Taking the framework of society as it was, it 
Social aimed to introduce into the relations of rulers and 
Problems. su bj ec t Sj fathers and children, husbands and wives, 
masters and slaves, the golden rule of charity. This being 
present, society would regulate itself. This being absent, no 

11 Rom. xiv. I2 I Cor. x. 18-33. I3 2 Cor. vii. II. 

14 The case of Ananias and Sapphira was an instance of divine sever- 
ity ; not, as is sometimes represented, of Church discipline. 



Rites. — Observances. — Morals. 9 7 

mechanical readjustment would answer a good purpose. Such 
absolute indifference to political theories in a movement so 
mighty, so deep, so intellectual as Christianity, is one of the 
most remarkable features of its early progress. Regarding each 
relation of life as a particular divine calling, it infused, 
however, a new element into each. Celibacy was to tions kai- 

• lowed. 

be hallowed by special devotion to God s service. 
Marriage was to be elevated by embracing it in the spirit of the 
Lord's union with the Church. Masters and slaves, as brethren, 
were to serve one another. High and low, rich and poor, bond 
and free, were all to be regarded as pilgrims in this world, jour- 
neying to one end, running one ra<_e, looking forward to one 
prize; for the final attainment of which the worst position in 
life has. in some respects, advantages over the best. 15 

x s 1 Cor. vii. I'/, 20, 29-31 ; Luke, vi. 20. The Therapeutce, according to 
Philo Judseus, on the ground that " nature has created all men free," regarded 
" the possession of slaves as wholly contrary to nature," and lived on terms of 
mutual equality in all things. Menial offices were oerformed by them in 
turns. 

5 



BOOK IL 



AGE OF MARTYRS AND DOCTORS: 



THE DEATH OF S. JOHN 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 



A.D. IOO-232 



LofC, 



Book II. 

CHAPTER I. 

BEGINNING OF THE SECOND CENTURY= 

In the history of the Church, as indeed in all history, there are 
from time to time certain half hours, as it were, of silence in 
Heaven ; certain seasons of unpretending but fruitful prepara- 
tion for the opening of the seals of a new order of events. 

Such a season occurred during the latter end of the first 
century and the beginning of the second, when S. John either 
in person or in spirit was still presiding over the 
Churches of Asia Minor. As compared with the out- o/siient 

. Grozvth. 

going vigor of the Pentecostal age, it was an interval 
of silence — of quiet and obscure, though indefatigable industry 
in carrying on the work previously begun. Though much was 
done and much suffered, little was originated during this period. 
Concentration, not expansion, was the order of the day. Few 
enterprises were undertaken, few brilliant minds arose. The 
mighty leaders of the Pentecostal age had, with one or two 
exceptions, departed to their rest ; and those who came into 
their place, being well content to labor upon other men's founda- 
tions, and in their doctrine having little need or wish to depart 
from the exact words of Apostolic teaching, left but scanty 
traces of their lives for history to record. 

Christianity, indeed, presented such a picture at this time as 



102 History of the Church. 

that suggested by our Lord in one of the most striking and 
mysterious of His parables of the Kingdom. The 

The Seed . . & 

growing soil of heathenism having been duly broken up, and 

in secret. 

the seed cast in, the great Sower had gone His way, 
and was slumbering, as it were : the seed, the meanwhile, spring- 
ing and growing up, no one noticed how. Or, its general 
appearance might be likened to the quiet but steady process of 

the finishing of the Temple. The stones and timbers 

The Temple 

rising in of the spiritual edifice had been hewn and shaped, 

silence. 

each for its own appointed place, by inspired Master- 
builders. What remained for those immediately coming after 
was with noiseless industry to go on in the line made ready to 
their hands, and to carry out the plan which had been divinely 
set before them. 

It was, in short, a kind of breathing spell between two 
periods of extraordinary energy and activity in the Church. 
a breath- The sun had set upon a great and busy day of mis- 
mg spdi. Nonary zeal; it was destined soon to rise upon an 
equally busy day of polemical excitement. In the interval 
between there is a veil upon the Churches ; under which, as we 
learn from the results, there was a vigorous life working, but 
through which it is impossible to discern aught, save here and 
there the figure of a Watchman or a Witness : a mere token to 
posterity that the remarkable stillness of the period was not of 
death, but of growth. 

S. John departed to his rest about the beginning of the cen- 
tury ; S. Clement of Rome, and S. Symeon, the second Bishop 
of Terusalem, a little while later. In the great Prov- 

5. John J f b 

and other ince of Syria, S. Ignatius kept alive the teaching, and 
exercised "the gift," which more than thirty years 
previously he had received from the three chief Apostles. In 
Asia Minor, S. Polycarp was treasuring the sacred lore which 
sixty years afterwards he transmitted to a new era of the Church. 
So, in other parts, a few witnesses remained to testify of the 
wonders of Apostolic times. 1 Ammias and Quadratus were 

1 Euseb. Ecc. Hist. iii. 37-39. 



Beginning of the Second Century. 103 

reverenced as Prophets. Others were still known for evangelic 
gifts. There were doubtless others also, such as Papias Evan- 

° ' r gelists, 

the Millenarian, who corrupted the tradition they had Prophets. 
received from the Apostles, and fostered a secret undergrowth 
of superstition and false doctrine. 

The profligate Domitian, whose name is connected with the 
second of the general Persecutions — whose rage, how- Domitian. 
ever, spent itself indifferently upon Jews, philosophers, Nerva, 
and every one that had a claim to any sort of merit — 
was succeeded by Nerva; and he towards the end of the first 
century by the virtuous Trajan. 

The latter was induced by his reverence, real or pretended, 
for the gods of the Empire, to give ear to the vile calumnies 
which continued to be circulated against his Christian 

Trajan. 

subjects, and to indulge, if not to foster, the spirit of 
persecution. The secrecy forced upon believers by the frivolity 
as well as cruelty of the world around, afforded un- Third 

doubtedly a handle against them. What innocence plrslcu- 
wore for a veil, might easily be assumed as a mask for twn ' 

guilt. Few heathen magistrates would distinguish between the 
holy rites of the Gospel and the foul abominations of Gnostic 
sects, when both were covered over with the same impenetrable 
cloud. 2 Trajan seems to have taken no pains to inquire into the 
distinction. By renewing certain edicts, almost become obsolete, 
against secret societies and assemblies, he gave full scope secret 

to the rage of the rabble ; 3 so that wherever Christians Societies - 
came together for worship, they were liable to be seized, put to 
the torture, and summarily condemned, as enemies of the State 
and despisers of the majesty of the Emperor. 

It was under these circumstances that Pliny the Younger, 4 

2 On the state of the Roman law with regard to persecution, see Jeremie, 
Hist, of the Christian Church, ch. ii. and notes ; also ch. i. $ 3. 

3 Eusebius attributes this persecution to popular fury. History, lib. iii. 32. 

4 The genuineness of these letters of Pliny has been disputed, but is 
admitted by the great majority of learned writers. See Lardner's Jetvish and 
Heathen Testimonies, and Gierig's edition of Pliny the Younger (torn. ii. 



104 History of the Church. 

being appointed Governor of Bithynia, a province evangelized 
in Apostolic times, undertook for a while to carry out 

Pliny the J 

Younger, the law in all its rigor. He became convinced, how- 

A.D. IO4-IIO. 

ever, that the task he had assumed was beyond his 
strength. To put all the Christians to death was to run a risk 
of depopulating large portions of his province. He found, 
moreover, that the veil of secrecy in which the Christians en- 
shrouded their sacred rights, covered nothing capable of a 
criminal construction. The temples of the gods, indeed, were 
beginning to be deserted, and victims had almost ceased to be 

offered upon their altars. Christianity was- becoming 
Heathen the prevalent religion. 5 But as to its votaries, Pliny, 

Worship. .... . , 

on diligent inquiry, having examined certain apostates 
who volunteered their evidence, and having put to the torture 
two deaconesses, 6 could learn nothing against them, except, as 
he expressed it, their perverse and extravagant superstition. 
They meet before sunrise, he writes, on a certain day. They 
sing hymns responsively to one another in praise of Christ as 
God. 7 They bind themselves together by a saa'ament ; not, 
christian however, for any criminal purpose, but as a mutual 
Worship. pi ec ige against theft, adultery, breach of trust, and the 
like : all which being ended, they break up for a while, and 
afterwards reassemble for a sociable and innocent repast. 

So Pliny wrote to the Emperor — an accurate, though some- 
what meagre outline of Christian life and worship. The term 
Term sacramentum, which he employs to designate the chief 

Sacra- 
ment, act of communion, is a word of large meaning, cover- 
ing anything from a simple verbal oath, in the modern sense, 

498-519) ; also Gieseler, \ 33, n. 7. Pliny's questions to the Emperor Were 
(1) whether any distinction of sex, age, etc., should be made; (2) whether 
place of penitence should be allowed; (3) whether the mere name of Chris- 
tian should be punished, or some crime should be proven ; (4) whether any 
search was to be made for them. 

5 Lucian, Pseudomant. 25, represents the false prophet as complaining 
that " Pontus was full of atheists and Christians." 

6 " Ex duabus ancillis quae ministrcz dicebantur." 

7 " Carmenque Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem." 



Beginning of the Second Century. 1 05 

to the most elaborate and impressive ceremonial. Pliny's ac- 
count, therefore, drawn as it was from the reluctant confes- 
sions of persons under torture, though correct as to the general 
order of Church customs in his day, is of very little value with 
regard to particulars. These were probably concealed ; or, if 
they were divulged, Pliny was not a man to think them worth 
mentioning in a formal communication to the Emperor. 

For the rest, the candid and philosophic governor freely bore 
witness to the general good conduct of the persecuted sect, and 
to their peaceable behavior. 8 The vigorous measures, 
however, which he had .pursued against them, were not duct of the 

Christians. 

without effect. Many, under the pressure of perse- 
cution, dissembled their belief. The assemblies for worship 
were Jess frequently held, or more carefully concealed. The 
heathen gods began once more to be honored by obsequious 
crowds. 9 On the other hand, the Emperor, somewhat mollified 
by the representations of Pliny, allowed the persecu- Trajan 
tion to assume a milder form. None should be pun- relents - 
.ished, he decreed, but those regularly convicted ; anonymous 
accusations should be rejected ; those who were brought to trial 
by responsible accusers, might be allowed to clear themselves 
by worshipping the gods ; but for such as remained quiet, there 
should be no rigorous inquiry. 

The effect of this decree was to blunt somewhat the edge of 
persecution. But when such a man as Pliny could regard the 
conscientious firmness of believers as an offence worthy 

Believers 

of the rack, and when such an Emperor as Trajan stm 

ii • • t • 1 • i • 1 i molested. 

could sanction capital punishment in cases which he 
deemed undeserving of serious inquiry, 10 there could be no lack 

8 This testimony was the more reliable from the fact that it was drawn in 
part from persons who had apostatized "some three years, and one or two 
tzventy years before." 

9 Pliny inferred from this that a great number of Christians might be won 
over from their faith, if " place of repentance " were given. 

10 Tertullian vehemently censures the Emperor on this account. Apologet. 
ii. Mosheim apologizes for Trajan, but the defence is an extremely lame one; 

J 



106 History of the Church. 

of informers on the one hand, or of unjust judges on the other, 
to procure accusations and convictions, and to keep the sword 
continually suspended over the heads of at least the chief leaden 
of the Church. Many suffered at the hands of the populace. 
Symeon, Some were put to death by the order of Trajan him- 
-^v™ self. Among others, Symeon the second Bishop of 
bout) io 7 . j erusa i em ] ias been already mentioned. His successor, 
Justus, likewise obtained the martyr's crown. 

But the flower of the noble army of witnesses for Christ at 
this period was found in the person of S. Ignatius, surnamed 
Ignatius of Theophorus, the Apostolic Bishop of the Church of 
Antioch. 11 He was a well-known disciple of the 
Apostle S. John. Associated for a while with S. Euodius, 
whom he succeeded in the year sixty-eight, and holding the 
Mother See of the Church in Syria, he was virtually the head, 
or, as S. Chrysostom styles him, the Apostle of that important 
province. As such he became a shining mark for the arrows of 
persecution. 

The precise time of his martyrdom has been much disputed, 

some placing it in the ninth, others in the nineteenth year of 

the reign of Trajan. It is only known that Trajan, 

Trajan, elated with his victories over the Scythians and Da- 

A.D. Il6. . . . . 

cians, and about to engage in an expedition in the 
East, halted at Antioch on his way, and showed a disposition 
to afflict the Christians. The Bishop, with a noble anxiety to 
shield his flock, fearlessly repaired to the imperial presence. 
Trajan said to him: "What cacodaemon (that is, ill-starred 
wretch) art thou, engaged in perverting other people?" Igna- 
tius answered: "None can call Theophorus caco- 

Theophorus. 

daemon, for the daemons keep away from the servants 
of God. But if thou callest me cacodaemon because I am hos- 

attributing his " inconsistency " to fear of " trie priests and the multitude," and 
not to " superstition." Comment, vol. i. 8, etc. Neander defends him on 
somewhat better grounds. 

11 S. Clement. Rom., S. Ignat., S. Polycarp., Patrum Apostol., etc. Oxon. 
1838. 



Beginning of the Second Century. 107 

tile to the daemons, I confess it. Having Christ the King 
of Heaven on my side, I dispel their snares." Trajan said : 
"What is the meaning of Theophorus?" Ignatius replied: 
"One who bears Christ in his heart." "But," said the Em- 
peror, " do not we in that sense bear the gods, who fight with 
us against our enemies?" Ignatius answered : "The daemons 
of the Gentiles are no gods. There is but one God, who made 
heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is therein ; and 
one Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son, whose kingdom may I 
attain ! " The sentence of death soon followed: "We His 

command Ignatius, who says he bears about the Cruci- 
fied with him, to be conducted to Rome by a military guard ; 
there to be thrown to wild beasts as a spectacle for the people." 
That the fact of his punishment might be as widely known 
as the noble victim himself, he was taken to the city by the 
longest way. The result was very different from what His 

the Emperor probably intended. It enabled the Mar- J m * rne y- 
tyr to give an example of faith and courage much needed at that 
time for the feebler class of believers. 12 Everywhere met by 
troops of zealous friends, he vindicated his claim to the title 
Theophorus, and to his own noble maxim, " My love hath been 
crucified." A Divine influence accompanied him from city 
to city. In his person the Cross seemed to be again uplifted. 
Everywhere he took care to season his conversation with salt, 
writing epistles to the Churches, dropping words of hope and 
comfort upon the multitudes who thronged to see him, calling 
his chains his spiritual jewels, and enlivening the gravity of his 
discourses with a chaste vivacity peculiarly his own. In this 
latter respect, S. Ignatius was among the sprightliest as well as 

12 The " fears" of Ignatius for his flock were probably not a mere dread 
of the sufferings they might have to undergo, but an anxiety lest they should 
fall away. For all Christians were not equally courageous. Such occasional 
examples as that of Ignatius were necessary, no doubt, to nerve the faith and 
courage of the more timid crowd. This being considered, the eagerness for 
martyrdom displayed by this noble confessor is defensible on rational grounds. 
When Polycarp suffered, a half century later, circumstances were different 
and a different course was advisable. 



10S History of the Church. 

holiest of martyrs. From his adamantine soul, as the Greeks 
describe it, the waters of an almost playful fancy were contin- 
ually welling up. His military guard he compared to 
"ten leopards," which, the kinder he was to them, 
became only the more wanton. The jaws of the lions which 
awaited him in the Roman Amphitheatre he regarded as a mill 
which was to grind his wheat into an offering of fine flour unto 
the Lord. With sallies of this kind, with stirring exhortations, 
with grave advice, and with a face which the ancients describe 
as radiant with joy, he made his journey to the great Metropolis 
a genuine Christian ovation. 

He was thrown to the lions in the Roman Amphitheatre on 
the great popular Feast of the Saturnalia. The whole city 
Final flocked together on such occasions. It was providen- 

tially ordered, therefore, that when the courageous old 
man descended into the arena, he was, more conspicuously than 
any of the martyrs before or after him, "a spectacle unto the 
whole world, even to angels and to men." Long before his 
arrival at Rome, he had had the consolation of learning that his 
Church, which he had committed to the special charge of his 
friend Polycarp, was no longer subject to persecution. 

Of his body, torn and mangled by the lions, a few relics are 
said to have been collected by the diligence of his friends. 13 
His The nobler legacy that he left to posterity in his fa- 

Remains. mous Epistles, has been more severely handled. In 
such portions, however, as have survived the fury of a long and 
searching controversy, 14 whether we take the seven Epistles com- 

*3 In his Epistle to the Romans, he expresses a hope that nothing might 
be left to be a trouble to his friends : that he might disappear to the world to 
appear with Christ : that he might set to the world to rise with Christ. 

J 4 The asperity of certain critics towards this father does not seem to have 
abated, if one may judge from two recent examples. The first is Bunsen. 
The word Sige, it appears — a Valentinian Gnostic term for God — in the 
Epistle to the Trallians, was for a long while considered an anachronism, and 
was used as an argument against the genuineness of the Epistle. The recent 
discovery of the works of Hippolytus has proved that the term was used by 
Simon Magus : the anachronism and the argument, therefore, fall to the 



Beginning of the Second Century. log 

monly received, or the briefer fragments of the Syriac transla- 
tion, there are unmistakable marks of his character and genius. 
Their freshness and originality is such as we find in no other 
of the Apostolic fathers. The style is terse, sparkling, and 
sententious. With allusions everywhere to the sense of Holy 
Scripture, but with few literal quotations, and possessing to a 
remarkable degree that quickness of spiritual discernment which 
hearkens, as he happily expresses it, to the silence of Jesus, Igna- 
tius wrote with a soul still moist with the morning dew of the 
first outpouring of the Spirit. Between the age of His 

inspiration and the era of reflective and discursive Positwn - 
thought which marked the latter half of the century, he is one 
of the most valuable of the connecting links. 

The testimony he bore to the doctrine and discipline of his 

ground. Bunsen is forced to acknowledge this; but instead of candidly con- 
fessing trie error, he turns upon Bishop Pearson for contending (as he had a 
right to do before the recent discoveries) that Ignatius used the word in the 
ordinary sense, and not in the Gnostic. See B.'s Hippol. vol. i. p. 59. The 
second instance is Dr. Schaff. The latter acknowledges the genuineness of 
the seven Epistles ; but, wishing to find fault somewhere, accuses the noble 
martyr of " something offensive," because he exhorts his friend Polycarp to 
be " more studious, .... more zealous, .... and to flee the arts of the 
Devil.'''' Dr. Schaff forgets that mutual exhortation was by early Christians 
considered a duty, and that Bishops were as willing to be warned against " the 
arts of the Devil " as the humblest catechumen. In the same way, the mar- 
tyr's earnestly expressed wish that the Romans would not seek to save him 
from martyrdom, but would rather pray for him that he might be found a 
sacrifice to God, is set down as " boisterous impatience and morbid fanati- 
cism." That the prospect of being eaten by lions may have had a stimulating 
effect upon the holy Bishop's imagination, and that he may have expressed 
his willingness to suffer somewhat more warmly than if he had written quietly 
in his study, I can readily conceive. But to characterize this generous warmth 
as -'boisterous impatience and morbid fanaticism" is to war against every 
noble impulse of the human heart. Writings more free than the Ignatian 
Epistles from fanaticism, and from every other kind of bitterness, can nowhere 
be found. See Antient Syriac Version, etc., by W. Cureton, M.A. For a 
summary of the argument in favor of the Seven Epistles, see Prof. Blunt's 
Lectures on the History of the First Three Centuries ; also Dr. Schaff 's 
History of the Church. 



1 1 o History of the Church. 

times is found in all copies of his writings, and is therefore not 
His witness affected by the critical objections which have been 
and° c ^" u ' ma de to portions of the text. On the subject of Epis- 
Discipime. CO p aC y hj s language is decisive. The proper Divinity 
of the Son of God, the reality of the Incarnation, and the anti- 
Gnostic maxim that even things done in the body are spiritual 
if done in the Lord, are expressed with equal force and preci- 
sion. The hortatory parts of the Epistles reveal a state of things 
in the Churches differing little from what existed when Timothy 
received his instructions from S. Paul. The widows continued 
to be the special charge of the chief Pastor. Masters and slaves, 
husbands and wives, are to grow in grace by faithful performance 
of their duties to one another. Marriage is honored ; virginity 
is moderately commended. 15 With the exception, in short, of a 
brief and obscure allusion to Satan's supposed ignorance of some 
of the mysteries of the Incarnation, everything in these writings 
is indicative of an age of simple faith, averse to speculation, 
averse to innovation, and jealously conservative of truth and 
order, in the letter and spirit of them both. 

With the remarkable witness of Pliny and Ignatius — the one 
a heathen philosopher, the other a Christian Bishop, but both 
Two testifying to the vigor of Christianity at this compara- 

nitnesses. lively unrecorded period of its history — we pass with 
rapid steps to an epoch which more completely lifts the veil of 
obscurity and silence, opening the seals of a new era of Church 
life, and showing the seeds of good and evil, which had been 
springing the meanwhile in the full luxuriance of their growth. 

T 5 The much abused phrase, Nothing without the Bishop, is used chiefly 
in this connection; namely, that in undertaking the two most critical and mo- 
mentous of all engagements — virginity and marriage — young persons should 
not think themselves wiser than their Pastors. S. Ignatii Ep. ad Polycarp. 5. 



Hadrian and the Antonines. 1 1 T 



CHAPTER II. 

HADRIAN AND THE ANTONINES. 

The ablest and wisest Emperors were not by any means the most 
favorable to Christianity. Trajan is known in history as the 
third of the Persecutors. Under Hadrian his suc- 

Fourth 

cessor, a philosophic prince of varied talents and vir- Persecution.. 

, . / , , A.D. 117-138. 

tues — whose virtue, however, seems to have possessed 
him as a spirit of unrest — things were but little altered for the 
better. Persecution was continually breaking out in one place 
or another. But the severity with which it was conducted de- 
pended mainly upon the temper of the mob, and the greater or 
less zeal of the provincial magistrates. 

It is of little use to look for recondite reasons for the injus- 
tice, or indifference, of these politically wise Emperors towards 
their Christian subjects. The Church undoubtedly 

, -r Progress 

was becoming a great power. It was felt, moreover, of the 
to be a power of change. The more thoughtful magis- 
trates, in proportion as they were patriotic and religious in the 
heathen sense, were nervously alive to the importance of this 
fact ; and of course the more alive, as Christianity was to them 
an incomprehensible, and, some of them half suspected, an irre- 
pressible phenomenon. Yet they were by no means 
settled in their judgment, or consistent in their course. 
As a man, about to be overtaken by the flow of a great tide, first 
notices with indifference a pool here or there forming stealthily 
in the sands, but at last, when he sees the pools enlarging and 
rapidly multiplying, is awakened to his danger, and now ad- 



1 1 2 History of the Church. 

vances, now retreats, the hostile element confronting him which- 
ever way he turns : such was the position, and such the policy 
Asa of the magistrates of the Empire, in dealing with 

Christianity. Mere superstitions they could easily 
have tolerated with Roman magnanimity. But Christianity, 
they saw, was no common superstition. Nor was it a violent 
enthusiasm, sweeping with foaming and threatening front along 
a measurable channel. What was infinitely more perplexing, it 
was singularly quiet, singularly peaceable, singularly gradual in 

its advance. It came in as a growth : it rose as a 

4s a Tide. & 

Solway tide. 1 Indeed, so uniform was its progress in 
all parts of the Roman world, so simultaneous in places far 
remote from one another, that whether it was rising upon 
society, or society was sinking into it, was a question that the 
philosophy of the times found it difficult to answer. There 
were many who looked upon it, therefore, as a sort of myste- 
rious epidemic. And it was this mystery, in fact, this evidence 
of power without any of the pomp and circumstance of power, 
that baffled the counsels of the Emperors, and entangled them 
in a policy as futile as it was unjust. 

It is true, however, that there were Christians who gave need- 
less offence, by the display of an inordinate desire of martyrdom. 
inordinate When Arrius Antoninus, 2 probably about this period, 

opened his tribunal in Asia for accusations against 
them, they voluntarily came forward in such numbers, that the 
governor, veiling his humanity under an appearance of con- 
tempt, was forced to drive them away. There are ropes 

1 The steady increase of Christians in all ranks of society was a common 
talk among the heathen ; and the somewhat exaggerated expressions of the 
Apologists to that effect are often put in the mouths of the enemies of the 
Gospel. Thus Tertullian : " Men cry out that the state is beset, that the 
Christians are in their fields, in their forts, in their islands. They mourn, as 
for a loss, that every sex, age, condition, and now even every rank is going 
over to this sect." Apologet. i. For numerous references to passages bearing 
on this subject, see Oxf. Translation of Tcrtull. p. 3, note g. 

2 Tertull. ad Scap. 5. There would seem to have been two of the name 
of Arrius ; the one under Hadrian, the other in the times of Commodus. 



Hadrian and the Antonines. 1 1 3 

enough, said he, to hang yourselves with, if life is such a bur- 
den to you. 

But such displays on the part of a certain class, were symp- 
toms of a distemper, which, at this time, pervaded all orders of 
men, and, in a measure, all forms of religion. The Fanaticism 
decay of Heathenism was filling the world with wild general. 
dreams. Fanaticism abounded. The Carpocratians and other 
Gnostic or semi-heathen sects, made their meetings the scenes 
of abominable orgies. The Jews were in a ferment of religious 
wars. They had rejected their true Messiah ; but the 

. . The Jews. 

vision of a Messiah, ever present to their minds, had 
become a great stone, as it were, that was perpetually falling on 
them and grinding them to powder. Under Trajan, 
they had perpetrated a horrible massacre of the Gen- 
tiles in Egypt. Similar events had occurred in Libya, Cyre- 
naica, Cyprus, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. Under Hadrian, 
Bar Cochba claimed to be the Messiah, and furiously persecuted 
the Christians. In this rebellion, which terminated, as we have 
seen, 3 with the second overthrow of Jerusalem, more 

A. D. fX^\ . 

than six hundred thousand Jews are said to have per- 
ished ; and by famine and other evils that followed, Judaea was 
almost depopulated. There was similar excitement among the 
Heathen. The Egyptians were running frantic over the T/ie 

supposed discovery of their bull-god, Apis. 4 Magical Heathen - 
arts began to be revived ; and to these, and even viler super- 
stitions, the philosophic Emperor fell an easy victim. The 
worship that he instituted to his deified minion Antinous made 
him an object of contempt to the very heathen. 

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if the Christians, 
partly from being somewhat infected with the evil spirit of the 
times, partly from being confounded with wretches who 
assumed the Name of Christ to profane it, and partly from a 
new edge being given to the malignity both of Jews and 
heathen, suffered in many ways not intended by the laws, and 

3 Book I. ch. vii. See Euseb. Eccles. Hist. iii. 2, 6. 

4 Spartianus de Api; Euseb. de Prceparat. ii. II. 



i t 4 Histoiy of the Church. 

became more than ever the objects of popular violence. In 
„ . , the Martyrologies, 5 it is said that Faith, Hope, and 

faith, . 

Hope, and Charity were among the sufferers of this time, being 

Charity. it- > to 

put to death at Rome, along with Wisdom, their 
mother. These holy sisters, the martyrs of every age, had 
doubtless begun to suffer then. Besides them, however, there 
seem to have been victims of a more tangible description, in 
Italy, Sardinia, Greece, Palestine, and all the provinces of the 
East. 6 

It was during Hadrian's reign that Quadratus, Bishop of 
Athens, 7 wrote an Apology for the Christians, and presented it 
Quadratus, to the Emperor. He was a disciple of the Apostles 
Evangelist ^ man y f w hose miracles he had seen with his own eyes), 
Bishop. anc j a distinguished Evangelist and Prophet. Becoming 
Bishop of Athens, he labored with great success in reestablishing 
the Church, which, in that part of Greece, had fallen into 
Hadrian decay. Hadrian, visiting the city in the course of his 
m Athens. en( ji ess travels, was equally intent upon reviving 
heathenism. 8 He seems, however, to have treated the venerable 
Apologist with all due respect. The memorial pre- 

Aristides. 

sented by Quadratus on this occasion, and a similar 
discourse written by Aristides a converted philosopher, were 

5 Martyrolog. Roman. August, i. 

6 The number of Martyrs at various periods is a subject that has been 
much discussed, to little or no purpose. The extremes [i. e., the reasonable 
extremes) are represented by Dodwell, Disertat. Cyprian, xi. and Ruinart. 
Acta Martyr. Selecta et Sincera, Pre/at. Most modern writers take the 
mean between these — a process more easy than satisfactory. 

7 Euseb. iv. 3; iii. 37. 

8 He was there initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. Hadrian's 
active mind being superstitious, as well as philosophic, I can see no improba- 
bility in the story of Lampridus [Alex. Severus, xxiv.) that he erected some 
temples without statues, with a view to admit Christ among the Roman gods. 
The same feeling that induced the Athenians to have an altar to " the unknown 
God" may have suggested such a course ; but when he found the priests op 
posed to it, his reverence for the established religion (Spartian. Vit Hadrian. 
xxii.) made him desist. 



Hadrian and the Antonines. 1 1 5 

highly esteemed by the Christians, and are said to have had 
some effect upon the mind of the Emperor. 

A greater effect was produced by a letter from Serenius 
Granianus, Proconsul of Asia Minor, representing to the Em- 
peror the injustice of allowing Christians to be put to 
death on a mere popular outcry. Other governors against 

Informers. 

had made similar complaints. Hadrian replied by a 
famous letter to Minucius Fundanus, 9 successor of Granianus, in 
which he forbids any one to be put to death, except in due 
course of law, and orders that false accusers should be rigorously 
judged and punished. 

Antoninus Pius, Hadrian's successor, is said to have re- 
newed this favorable edict, and seems to have done his utmost 
to have it honestly enforced. He was moved to this 

Antoninus 

by his own humane disposition, and possibly by an Pius, 

apology of Justin, the philosopher and martyr. Be- 
yond occasional outbreaks of fanaticism, therefore, in conse- 
quence of a long series of public calamities, 10 the Christians 
were little troubled in the exercise of their religion. Indeed, 
the sufferings they were called to endure were hardly more than 
were necessary to draw a line betwixt them and the Gnostic 
sects ; the latter, as a general rule, not caring enough for the 
Name of Christ to bear persecution for it. 

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was, as Gibbon has described 
him, " of a severer and more laborious kind of virtue " than his 
amiable predecessor. " He embraced the rigid system 

1 # . Marcus 

of the Stoics, which taught him to submi this body to Aurelius, 
, . a.d.i6i-i8o. 

his mind, his passions to his reason ; to consider vir- 
tue as the only good, vice as the only evil, all things external 
as things indifferent. ' ' To his subjects in general, he was just and 
beneficent. But, unfortunately for the peace of the Hostile to 
Christians, their religion was particularly offensive to ie os ^ el ' 
Stoic pride. The imperial sophist might -declaim of the happy 

9 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. iv. 9. 

10 Famines, inundations, earthquakes, fires. Jul. Capitolin. Vita Antonin. 
Pii, ix. 



1 1 6 History of the Church. 

frame of mind which enables one to await annihilation with a 
stern composure. A Christian would merely pity such rigidity 
of soul. Man is not made for a leaden and passionless immo- 
bility : he is benevolently created for life and hope. Not sup- 
pression of the affections, but their proper cultivation, is the 
rule of duty. Not annihilation, but a blissful resurrection — 
not death, but life — is the doctrine to inspire true courage, 
true patience, true temperance, true virtue of every kind. 

Marcus Aurelius felt this antagonism between his own phi- 
losophy and the faith of his Christian subjects." "It is admir- 
That stoic able," says he, "that the soul should be prepared for 
whatever may await her : to be extinguished, to be dis- 
persed, or whatever else may happen. But prepared, I say, not 
with mere obstinacy, like that of the Christians, not with an 
idle show of joy, but in a grave, considerate, reasonable man- 
ner, so as to make a serious impression on the minds of other 
people." Judging Christian hope from the stand-point of 
stoicism, he considered it a mere affectation. Besides this, the 
Gospel, as he could not fail to see, imparted a peculiar power. 
Under its inspiration, not the perfect man merely, not the king 
in the stoic sense, but women and children, and even slaves, 
could face the great terror undismayed. In this respect, phi- 
losophy had begun to feel itself rebuked. About the time of 
the Emperor's accession, a hardened wretch of the name of 
Peregrinus, 12 who, in the course of a bad life, had been succes- 
sively parricide, Christian, priest, confessor, and finally an 
apostate from the faith and a professor of Cynicism, attempted 

11 Neander (67/. Hist. i. ii.) calls attention to a "childlike piety," which 
the Emperor had imbibed from his mother, and which sometimes led him to 
the expression of the noblest sentiments, and sometimes involved him in abject 
superstition. A strong religious feeling of this kind must have been terribly 
galled at times by the artificial stoicism in which he had tried to encase it ; 
and the irritation thence arising may account for his peculiar hostility to the 
Christians. To hate a thing cordially, there must be a certain amount of 
sympathy with it. 

12 Lucian, De Morte Peregrini. 



Hadrian and the Antonines. 1 1 7 

to prop the failing credit of philosophy by burningh imself pub- 
licly at the Olympic games. An immense crowd was The Cynic 
present. Some laughed, some admired. Contrary, Martyr. 
perhaps, to the expectation of Peregrinus, none had the human- 
ity to interfere. After many delays and tremors, he threw him- 
self at length into the devouring element. The act was indeed 
but a vile caricature of Christian self-devotion. It shows a 
point, however, in which philosophy felt its own deficiency. 
Where Stoicism could boast of an occasional suicide, Christian- 
ity could point to an unfailing succession of Martyrs. This 
being the case, there was no course left for a man of discern- 
ment like the Emperor, but either to embrace the Gospel, or 
to treat it as an enthusiasm dangerous to the peace of his sub- 
jects, and to the welfare of the State. 

Among the numerous sufferers of this reign there are three 
names so distinguished, and so typical of certain phases ThreeTy p es 
of the Church life of the age, as to demand for each a °f theA s e - 
separate and particular account. 

Polycarp, the disciple of John, the bosom friend of Ignatius, 
and for threescore years the trusted depository of Apostolic tra- 
dition, is the representative of an age of simple faith, 
observant of the old landmarks, but not much exer- 
cised as yet by "the oppositions of science," whether true or 
false. In Pothinus, a disciple of the same school, and 

Pothinus. 

in his companions the Lyonnese Martyrs, we observe 
the same devout faith, but with it all the symptoms of an age of 
sterner and more complicated trials. The war against heathen- 
ism from without is accompanied by a protest against the begin- 
nings of heathenish corruptions from within. Justin, Justin 
the Philosopher, Apologist, and Martyr, more fully Mart y r - 
represents this struggle, both outward and inward, as leaving 
the high ground of simple martyrdom, and descending into 
the dusty arena of philosophical, skeptical, and critical discus- 
sion. 

And this was a necessary stage in the Church's progress 
here on earth. A religion which fails to satisfy the mind of 



1 1 8 History of the Church. 

man can never rise above the level of a popular superstition. 
Transition The Church for awhile might be content to announce 

her message in the simple, pregnant phrases which 
appeal only to the few that have ears to hear. But this 
would not answer always. As St. Ignatius foresaw, on his 
way to martyrdom, other times were coming, with a de- 
mand for combatants who could speak face to face with 
all kinds of men ; who, as skilful pilots, should be in readi- 
ness for winds from all quarters of the heavens; who, as 
athletes thoroughly trained, could stand like an anvil under 
repeated blows, knowing that to be smitten is as needful for the 
victory as the power to smite. 13 In proportion as we appreciate 
this truth we are prepared to do justice to three phases of 
Church life, which appeared successively, or rather grew one 
out of another, before the end of the second century. An age 

of simple witness bears within it an age of elaborate 

Three Ages. 

Apologetics ; and this again developes into a con- 
fused and troublous era of religious discussion and polemical 
zeal. 

As types of three aspects of this period of transition, the 
names of Polycarp, Pothinus, and Justin Martyr are entitled to 
the large place they hold in the early history of the Church. 

x 3 S. Ignat. ad Polycarp. 2, 3. 



S. Poly carp. 1 1 g 



CHAPTER III. 

S. POLYCARP. 

The city of Smyrna, at the beginning of the second century, 
was hardly inferior to Ephesus in social and political impor- 
tance. The Church established there at quite an early church in 
period had remained, as we infer from the Apocalypse, myrna. 
singularly uncorrupt ; its Angel, rich in good works amid tem- 
poral poverty and affliction, having guarded it successfully 
against the arts of that semi-Jewish, semi-Gnostic philosophy, 
with which the Asiatic cities at that time, and for some while 
after, were more or less infected. 1 

Whether the Angel thus commended was the admirable 
Bishop subsequently so well known under the name of Poly- 
carp, is matter of conjecture only. 2 Certain it is, 
however, that the saintly Bishop of the second century 
proved not unworthy of the eulogy pronounced upon the faith- 
ful Angel of the first. For twenty years or more the disciple of 
S. John, and the trusted friend of S. Ignatius, he first comes 
before us a sober pastor at the head of a well ordered flock, 
both " sheep and shepherd nailed to the cross of 

r r The Shep- 

Christ,' at the time when tne Martyr of Antioch herd and 

the Flock. 

halted for a few days at Smyrna, on his memorable 
journey to Rome. The latter entrusted him with the dearest 
remaining care of his life. He was to have a fit head provided 
for the Church at Antioch f to write to all the Churches which 

1 Rev. ii. 8-10. 

2 The probabilities (from the age of Poly carp at the time of his death, etc.) 
are against the identity of the two. 



1 20 History of the Church. 

Ignatius could not write to himself; and to do what else in his 
discretion might be found expedient. 

His style, in the portion that remains of his excellent Epistle 
to the Philippians, 3 is in keeping with the sobriety and sim- 
plicity of his character. There is nothing in it of the 

His Style V J b 

and char- terseness of Ignatius, that concentrated power which 

acter. 

makes old thoughts crystallize into something new and 
rare. Holy Scripture is the staple of his writings. He quotes 
much, — quotes generally in the letter, and seems drawn along 
by the sacred text, as if he loved it too much to let it go his 
hold, or to break it off abruptly from any of its connections. 
Less brilliant than Ignatius, and perhaps with less claim to any 
"gift" of Divine illumination, he was eminently fitted for 
the providential end for which his life on earth seems to have 
been so extraordinarily prolonged. Not faithful merely, but 
literally and punctiliously faithful, conservative of jots and 
a Theo. tittles, he was just the man for a theodromos, as Igna- 
,me ' tius phrases it, 4 — a Divine message-bearer from the 
Apostolic age to a second and third generation of zealous wit- 
nesses to the Truth. 

"It seems to me that I still hear him telling" — so writes 
Irenaeus, 5 the most intellectual of the disciples of his school — 
Portrait by " now ne na( i conversed with S. John and other eye- 
irenams. witnesses of Jesus Christ ; repeating the very words he 
had heard from their mouths, with many particulars of the mir- 
acles and doctrines of that divine Saviour, all of which was in 
closest conformity with what we learn from the Sacred Script- 
ures, from the writings, namely, of those who were themselves 
eye-witnesses of the Word of Life." 

About the middle of the century, during the reign of Anto- 
ninus Pius, he made a visit to Rome, desirous of conference with 

Anicetus, then Bishop of that city. There he bore 

Visit to ' y J 

Rome, his testimony against Marcion, Carpocrates, and other 

heretics of the day. On the question already agitated 

in the Church — the practice, namely, of feasting like the Jews 

3 Patr. Apostol. Oxon. 1838. * Ad Polycarp. 7. 5 Apud. Euseb. v. 20. 



•S. Poly carp. 121 

on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan 6 — he maintained the 
tradition of S. John and S. Philip against Anicetus and the 
Roman custom. Neither party had power to convince the other. 
Against the practice of S. John and S. Philip, the Two Tra 
Romans alleged that of S. Peter and S. Paul. Neither ditions ' 
Anicetus nor Polycarp seems to have dreamed of any authority 
vested in the Roman See by which the controversy might be 
once for all decided. They parted as they had met,, in peace. 
And for nearly two centuries longer, the Christians of Asia 
Minor, with a firmness sufficiently vexatious at the time, but 
precious in after ages as a testimony to the primitive equality of 
the Churches, adhered to their tradition. 

In his martyr-death, as for so many years in his martyr-life, 
Polycarp was still the faithful theodrome ; not running before, 
but with tranquil humility content to follow after, the will of 
God We have already had occasion to notice that, Excessive 
owing in part to continuous persecution, and in part ZeaL 

to a contagious enthusiasm which the Church resisted but not 
with absolute success, the glory of witnessing for Christ was 
sometimes coveted by persons unworthy of the honor. Hence 
a needless asperity at times, or even a species of bravado, before 
the tribunals. Hence, among some, an actual courting or pro- 
voking of popular hatred. Hence, in short, many sore scandals 
to the Church. Early in the century the wretched volunteer 
Peregrinus had shown that one might stand up man- Martyrs. 
fully as a confessor, in times of persecution, and yet be unable 
to keep his feet amid the fumes of subsequent applause. More 
recently a Phrygian of the name of Quintus had thrust himself 
forward as a volunteer for martyrdom ; but as soon as he heard 
the lions roar he was ready to sacrifice to idols. Lapses of this 
kind, becoming more frequent as the Church increased in num- 
bers, made it incumbent on pastors and leaders to set an example 
of a new kind of confessorship — the confessorship, namely, of 
a prudent circumspection : a thing vastly more difficult in stir- 
ring times than any other form of faith and courage. 
6 For the Paschal question, see ch. ix. of this book. 

6 



122 His lory of the Church. 

The first demand for the sacrifice of Polycarp arose from the 
amphitheatre at Smyrna, on occasion, we are told, of the mar- 
tyrdom of Germanicus with eleven other Christians of Philadel- 
phia. These amphitheatres — huge mouths of hell as 

The Circus. , 

the Christians properly esteemed them, with their 
beast-fights and gladiator-shows, bubbling with all the lewd and 
cruel passions of the idolatrous rabble of great cities — were the 
recognized feeders of that blood-thirsty spirit which disgraced 
the civilization of the old Roman world ; and so long as they 
were tolerated, were unfailing fountain-heads of new persecu- 
its Bah/ui tions. There is a fearful description by S. Augustine 7 
influence. Q |- t j ie wa ^ r ^ e scm l CO uld be wrought on, and meta- 
morphosed in these abominable dens. How horror stiffened 
into cruelty at the first sight of blood ; how cruelty, amid the 
growls of lacerated brutes, and the cheers and jeers of monsters 
in human shape, elevated itself into a sort of demoniacal pos- 
session ; how the shrinking novice of a few hours since, now 
" beheld, shouted, kindled," being magnetized, as it were, into 
a frenzy of mingled terror and delight : all this has been vividly 
portrayed, and to those who have observed the plastic nature of 
the soul is by no means difficult to imagine. 

Between the darkness of such scenes and the pure light of 
Christianity, there could be no sort of concord. Regarding 
them as the rallying-point of the daemons whom the Gospel was 
dislodging from shrine and grove, believers looked upon them 
with an aversion not to be disguised. The hate, of course, was 
fully reciprocated. When the name of Polycarp, therefore, was 
Polycarp uttered in the theatre of Smyrna, it was caught up at 
called for. q^^ anc j resounded on every side. "Away with the 
atheists, 8 let Polycarp be brought ! " It was a popular delirium, 
not to be resisted, not to be evaded. 

7 S. Augustine, Confess, vi. 8. On the subject of the indecency and bar- 
barity of heathen shows, see Tertullian, De Spectaculis. 

8 " We are called Atheists," says Justin Martyr, " and so far as those 
called gods by the heathen are concerned, we plead guilty to the charge ; but 
not so with regard to the only true God," etc. Apol. ii. 6. 



S. Poly car p. 123 

The saint, however, yielding to the urgency of his friends, 
withdrew for awhile from the reach of the infuriated crowd. 
In a retired country-seat, at no great distance from the His 

city, he spent his time in prayers night and day for the 
welfare of the Churches, and tranquilly awaited the good pleasure 
of the Lord. Hunted from this place of refuge, he magnani- 
mously yielded to entreaty and fled to another. Meanwhile he had 
had a vision in which his pillow appeared all in flames, 

1 ri His Dream. 

and on the strength of it had foretold the kind of 
martyrdom he was called to undergo. Discovered in his second 
retreat, he said simply, ii The Lord's will be done" and gave 
himself up. Two hours were granted him for prayer, his cap- 
tors the meanwhile regaling themselves with a collation, which 
the venerable Bishop, mindful to the last of the duty of hospi- 
tality, had been careful to provide. 

On his way to the city he was overtaken by Herod the Ire- 
narch and Nicetas his father, who took him up into their chariot, 
and tried to persuade him to call Caesar Lord, and msCon- 
offer the sacrifice enjoined in such cases. He simply fusion. 
answered, I cannot do what you advise. Brought before Statius 
Quadratus the Proconsul, he was ordered to repeat the prayer 
for the destruction of the godless, which, being intended as an 
imprecation against the Christians, had become a gathering cry 
of the Smyrna rabble. But the language of the prayer was 
capable of a Christian interpretation. Polycarp, therefore, was 
content to repeat the words prescribed, looking up with beam- 
ing face towards Heaven. When commanded to curse Christ, 
he mildly answered, Fourscore and six years have I served Him, 
and He hath done me no ill : how then can I curse my King 
and Saviour? To the further demand, that he should swear by 
the Fortune of Caesar, he replied that he was a Christian, the 
meaning of which name he was ready to explain, if the Pro- 
consul would grant him a hearing. 

Moved probably by a feeling of compassion, the Proconsul 
then advised him to plead his cause before the people. But 
Polycarp was not to be led into such a crooked course. He saw, 



124 History of the Church. 

what certain apologists for the Magistrates of that age are 
False strangely blind to, 9 that men in authority had no right 

ncss. t0 p ut t | ie swor( j committed to them into the hands of 
an irresponsible, blood-thirsty mob, and then to wash their hands, 
Pilate-like, as though they were innocent in the matter. Poly- 
carp, doubtless, was well aware of this. To the soft words of 
the Proconsul, therefore, he replied with dignity and firmness : 
" Before you I am willing to make answer ; for Princes 

Honor jo 

nvhere and Magistrates are ordained of God, and we Chris- 

due. . 

tians are taught to render them the honor that is due : 
but with regard to the populace, they have no such claim, and I 
am under no obligation to plead before them." 

The games at this time being over, Polycarp, according to 
his prediction, was condemned to the stake. The Christians of 

Smyrna, who witnessed and recorded the transaction, 

His Mar- J ' ' 

tyrdom y saw the flames gather around and enclose him as in a 

A.D. 167-9. 

fiery pavilion, while a delicious perfume floated through 
the air. 10 As the fire did not reach him at once, some one, per- 
haps out of compassion, plunged a sword into his side. His 
friends gathered what could be found of his remains, and rever- 
entially consigned them to a tomb. " There," they add, with 
a discriminating piety worthy of their saintly teacher, li we hope 
to assemble hereafter, and celebrate with joy the day of his mar- 
Honors tyrdom ; not to worship him, however, as the Pagans 
Paid him. sa ^ k u t to contemplate the example he has set, and to 
learn, if needs be, to imitate it. As to worship, we can never 
abandon Jesus Christ. We worship Him because He is the Son 
of God. The martyrs we love and follow, because of the very 
great love they have shown for their King and Master." 11 

9 It is true, however, that many magistrates were ready to connive at the 
escape of Christians ; perhaps most of them were, when believers could be 
induced to accept dishonorable modes of escape See Tertull. Ad Scap. iv. 

10 These facts, easily enough explained, do not seem to be mentioned as 
miracles, but merely as pleasing incidents ; just as one notices a fine day on 
any special occasion, or any other welcome coincidence. 

11 Ecclesice Smymensis de Martyrio S. Polycarpi Epistol. Circtdaris. 
Patrum Apostol., etc. 



The Lyonnese Martyrs. 125 

Such was the end of Polycarp, a man full of years, full of 
fruit — the very embodiment of that quiet, conservative, order- 
loving spirit, which was eminently characteristic of conserva- 
tive. Churches of S. John. He left numerous disciples, tlveS $ irit - 
many of whose names were recorded in the roll of Martyrs. It 
is said, in a doubtful passage of the Epistle which describes his 
death, that when the sword pierced his side, a dove 12 flew out 
of the wound and winged its way toward Heaven. The story is 
without value as a matter of fact ; but, if it were true, there 
could be no better symbol of the change that was already taking 
place in the aspect of Christianity. The dove-like temper was 
already in large measure departed. A spirit not less needful for 
the times — a spirit of inquiry, agitation, and polemical discus- 
sion — was rapidly approaching in its place. 

It is also said in the Epistle, that " he appeased the persecu- 
tion; sealing it up, as it were, with his testimony." seaio/tke 
This applies, however, only to Smyrna and other cities Persecutwn - 
of Asia. In Gaul, the persecution continued some years longer. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE LYONNESE MARTYRS. 



From the tree planted by S. Paul and watered as we have seen 
for nearly a century by S. John and S. Polycarp, vigor- Gallic 

ous scions had sprung up on the distant banks of the Chur f^\ 
Rhone, among the Graeco-Gallic population of Lyons ( about ^ x *°- 
and Vienne. 1 The venerable Pothinus, a friend of Polycarp 

12 This story is not found in all copies ; and where it occurs, it has been 
ingeniously conjectured that eft aristera (on the left) has been changed by 
transcribers into peristera (dove) . 

1 It is probable enough that other foundations had been laid in Gaul prior 
to this, but nothing is known of them. See Lorenz. Summ. Hist. Ga//o- 



1 2 6 History of the Church. 

and of about the same age, left Asia, it is probable towards 
the middle of the century, and settling in Lyons became Bishop 
there. With him was a numerous and zealous band, among 
whom the name of Irenaeus is most interesting to the modern 
reader. Under their auspices, the Church grew and flourished, 
as Churches then grew ; making little noise in the world, and 
keeping scant record of itself for the benefit of posterity, till 
the blade and the ear had matured into the full corn, and the 
sickle of persecution was sent in to reap the first harvest. 

As usual at this period, the first cry for blood was uttered 
among the brutalized rabble of the Amphitheatre. We learn 
First Cry from Tacitus how admirably the Province, as it was 
*?D.fa6outj called, having been first vanquished by the power of 
170-176. t | ie swor d, was gradually tamed by the luxurious appli- 
ances — the baths, theatres, and temples — of the wise and wicked 
Circe of the Seven Hills. The history of Christianity is a proof 
that the taming was hardly more than skin-deep. A capricious 
Heathen mob, fawning on the hand that fed them with bread 
and circus-shows, is all that heathenism ever made of 
the lower classes ; and even this had continually to be repur- 
chased with fresh sacrifices. Beast-fights led to gladiator-fights, 
and, gladiator-fights becoming tame, the prisons were emptied 
into the arena; and, at length, the jails themselves yielding an 
inadequate supply to the frenzied cry for blood, 2 hungry eyes 
began to be cast upon the little flock of Christians. 

Franc, and Gregorii Turon. Hist., etc. It shows the tenacity of the Greek 
foundation, that as late as the sixth century, Csesarius of Aries taught his peo- 
ple to sing indifferently in Greek and Latin. L'abbe Guettee opens his history 
with a lively chapter sur Veglise Gallo-Romaine : his facts, however, bear 
more on l'eglise Gallo-Grecque. 

2 " Fluctuat sequoreo fremitu rabieque faventum, 
Carceribus nondum resolutis, mobile vulgus." 

" But we leaping, raging like madmen, striking each other, .... and 
sometimes going naked from the show." For much more to the same effect, 
see Onuphr. Panvin. De Lud. Circ. Bad as the circus was, it was considered 
innocent, in comparison with the filthy enormities of the theatre. Still, the 
former, says Lactantius. was more maddening; for the spectators became so 



The Lyonnese Martyrs. 127 

Attention once turned that way, persecution followed as a 
matter of course. In the language of the Lyonnese Confessors, 
the devil himself went to and fro through the streets christians 
of the city, in the shape of a savage beast, and stirred 
popular excitement into an ungovernable frenzy. Christians 
began to be hooted and pelted, wherever they appeared. The 
next step was to seize them and drag them into the forum ; 
where, accused by a blood-thirsty mob, and interrogated by 
complaisant magistrates, they confessed the Name of Thrown 
Christ and were cast into prison. From the jails they Prison. 
are carried once more, for insult rather than for trial, into the 
presence of the Prefect of the city. 

At this point of the proceedings occurs one of those acts of 
heroic self-devotion, which, happening as it did in a luxurious 
and degenerate age, could hardly fail to impress the Heroic 
minds, of the more thoughtful at least, of the perse- Conduct - 
cutors themselves. Vettius Epagathus, a youth of honorable 
character and station, had not been numbered as yet among the 
objects of attack. But when he saw the injustice with which 
his brethren were treated, he could not contain himself. He 
advanced to the tribunal. He demanded to be heard on the 
side of the accused. "Art thou, then, a Christian? " asked the 
Governor in reply. Vettius confessed, and was condemned to 
death. "Thus he showed himself a paraclete,'''' says A True 
the Lyonnese narrative, " being filled with the true Paradete - 
Paraclete, which enabled him to show his love for the brethren, 
following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." 

Of the others who had been seized, about ten fell away, to 
the great discomfort of their brethren. Certain slaves Ten fail 
also were forced, by threats of imprisonment or by a-way. 
actual torture, to give information against their masters. Incest, 
conspiracy, and Thyestean repasts, were among the crimes 
crimes alleged on the testimony of these wretches. alle sed. 
But no accusation was too gross for the fanatical credulity of 

excited that " they often proceeded from words to blows, and a general battle 
ensued." Lactant. Divin. Institut. 63. 



128 History of the Church. 

the public. What is more surprising, even well-instructed per- 
sons, relatives and friends of the accused, allowed their minds 
to be contaminated by the foul breath of calumny; and palpable 
lies, by dint of repetition, acquired all the force and certainty 
of unquestionable facts. The victims, therefore, suffered with- 
out pity and without redress. Huddled together in 

Tortzires. 

dark and loathsome jails, stretched on the rack, cut, 
mangled, roasted, burnt, and subjected in short to every variety 
of torture, they had no resource, no argument, but the unvary- 
ing confession, " I am a Christian : no wickedness is practised 
or tolerated among us." 

It is pleasing to observe that among the Lyonnese Confessors 
the supreme merit of charity held its proper place. They prayed 

fervently for those who had fallen in the hour of trial, 

Charity 

of the and their prayers were answered. The greater part of 

Sit fiT^r^rs 

the lapsed returned, and recovered their good stand- 
ing. What was vastly more difficult, the Martyrs were taught 
by a common calamity to forget certain differences of opinion, 
which at other times, perhaps, had received too much of their 
attention. One instance of this deserves to be particularly 
noticed. 

From the time of S. Paul there had existed in the Church 
an ascetic or encratite party, which sometimes as a matter of 
Ascetic voluntary self-discipline, and in some cases from a less 
Party. justifiable motive, abstained altogether from animal 
Aidbiades. food and from wine. Alcibiades, one of the con- 
fessors, belonged to this class. As soon, however, as one of his 
companions was moved in a dream to warn him that it was 
''neither right nor proper to reject the good creatures of God," 
he changed his course and thankfully partook of what was set 
before him. There is nothing that pride more reluctantly gives 
up than a supererogatory virtue. The merit of Alcibiades, there- 
fore, in yielding so cheerfully to the scruples of others, was 
justly regarded by the Lyonnese as an extraordinary proof of 
the presence of God's Spirit among them. 

Deacon Sanctus, probably of Latin or Gallic origin, was a 



The Lyonnese Martyrs. 129 

martyr such as S. Ignatius would have delighted to contemplate. 
He stood like an anvil under the strokes of his tor- 

i ti -i tit • i • Sanctus. 

mentors, and like an anvil responded by a single ring- 
ing note. Christiamis sum was all he had to say of his name, 
city, race, condition, and profession. Christianus sum he kept 
on repeating, till his body, we are told, was a mass of sores and 
cinders, mangled, shrivelled, and distorted, with hardly a vestige 
left of the human shape. Maturus a new convert, Matur-us. 
Attalus a pillar of the Church in Pergamos, and Alex- Attains. 
ander a Phrygian, were equally heroic. The "blessed Aiexa?ider. 
Pothinus," bowed beneath the weight of more than Pothinus. 
ninety years, many of which had been spent in the Episco- 
pate at Lyons, showed a dignified serenity worthy of a friend 
of S. Polycarp and S. John. When asked by the Governor, 
"Who is the God of the Christians?" he said, "Show thy- 
self worthy, and thou shalt know." After shameful ill-treat- 
ment by the mob, he. was thrown into prison, where he peace- 
fully expired. 

But the glory of this great battle for the Faith seems by 
unanimous consent to have fallen to the lot of Bland ina a poor 
female slave, whose mistress like herself was among 

. . . . Blandina. 

the confessors. The fiendish atrocities inflicted upon 
this woman are minutely described in the letter written by the 
survivors. Suffice it to say here that as her apparent weakness 
led the heathen to suppose her an easy prey, so her unexpected 
firmness and almost miraculous vitality provoked their malice to 
a point of insatiable fury. Every device of cruelty was ex- 
hausted upon her and upon her brother, a lad of fifteen years of 
age. To sustain the courage of this latter seems to have been 
her principal concern. Amid the horrors of such scenes, it is 
delightful to observe the reverence and affection with which her 
heroic struggle was witnessed by her companions. From a 
feeble slave she was exalted in their eyes into a princess The Lowly 
mighty with God, a true mother in Israel. Her pres- exalted. 
ence pervades the good fight of Faith from the beginning to the 
end. 

6* 



1 30 History of the Church. 

The confessors who survived bore their honors, we are told, 

with meekness and moderation. 3 "They humbled themselves 

under the mighty Hand by which they had been so 

Good Sense 

of the honorably exalted. They defended, all their brethren 
who had lapsed, they criminated none: they loosed 
all, they bound none." The spirit of S. John, it is plain, was 
still mighty in the Churches. 

It needs only to be added that the narrative from which this 

Their chapter is taken was written 4 by one of the survivors, 

Epistle. anc | sent t0 t h e mother Churches in Asia Minor. The 

witness unto blood before the heathen was accompanied also with 

a protest against the new Prophets, probably the Mon- 

TJlC 7t€1U 

Prophets tanists, by whom the peace of the Church had been for 

condemned. . . , . . 

some time disturbed. Another letter, with the same 
condemnation of the rising heresy, addressed to Eleutherus, 
then Bishop of Rome, 5 was sent by the hand of the Presbyter 
Irenaeus, with a testimonial to his character which his subse- 
quent career in the Church proves to have been well deserved. 

In other parts of Gaul, and in Rome and other cities of 
Italy, the persecution raged for some time, and added many 
Troubles names to the roll of the Martyrs. It was accompanied 
elsewhere. more r less by war, pestilence, and famine ; in the 
midst of all which we get but occasional and unsatisfactory 
The Pmn- glimpses of the state of Gallic Christianity. About 
vfne. the end of the century another persecution came, and 

proved still more fatal to the Church in Lyons. But here, as 

3 The emphasis laid upon this and similar traits in the letter of the con- 
fessors shows that a different spirit had already begun to show itself. 

4 Euseb. v. 1-4. 

5 The phrase here employed — rrjc tuv ekkAtjct/uv elprjvrjc ivzua 7rpEG6evovTEg 
— " negotiating for the peace of the Churches" — and the fact that the martyrs 
in prison had written several letters on the subject, seem to countenance the 
supposition that Eleutherus was the Bishop mentioned by Tertullian (Adv. 
Prax.) who favored the new prophets. See Valesius ad Euseb. v. 3. There 
are not facts enough to determine the question ; but the statement of Tertullian 
seems to accord better with the impetuous character of Victor, the successor 
of Eleutherus. 



Justin Marfyi'. 131 

elsewhere, the early proverb was verified, that the more the 
grass is cut, the more it grows : the more the vine is pruned, the 
more choice and abundant is the vintage. The blood of the 
Gallic Martyrs proved to be the seed of an unfailing and increas- 
ing harvest. 



CHAPTER V. 

JUSTIN MARTYR. 



Justin, surnamed the Martyr, a title won by his apologetic pen, 
as well as sealed by his blood in witness of the Truth, was a 
native of Neapolis, a city of Samaria, and probably of 

Jtistin in 

heathen parentage. He was born about the beginning search of 

Tvuth. 

of the second century. Tormented from early youth 
by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, he put himself first under 
the tuition of a famous Stoic ; l but finding, upon trial, that the 
man could teach him nothing with reference to God, and that 
he rather despised the earnest inquiries of his pupils, he repaired 
to the school of an able and subtle Professor of Peri- His 

patetic wisdom. Him he found, however, to be a wor- Teachers 
shipper of gold as the summum bonum, and indifferent to all 
truth that had not a marketable value. Justin, therefore, left 
him in disgust. At length, hearing of a learned Pythagorean, 
who had the reputation of being quite inaccessible to the charms 
of money, he determined to throw himself at his feet, and to 
become, if permitted, one of his disciples. The philosopher 
seems to have been nothing more than a pompous charlatan. 
He possessed, however, no little capacity for words, and in the 
science of his school imagined he had a key to all knowledge, 

1 Dialog, cum Tryphone yudceo. The slightly romantic tinge of this 
narrative does not impair its credibility ; it merely gives us a better insight 
into the amiable but earnest character of the martyr. Eusebius makes Ephe- 
sus the scene of this Dialogue, iv. 18. 



1 3 2 History of the Church. 

human and divine. "Tell me," says he to the eager aspirant, 
"are you an adept in music, astronomy, and geometry? For 
by these sciences alone can you learn to abstract the soul from 
sensible objects, and fix it in contemplation of what is beautiful 
in itself." Justin, however, knew little of the stars. Perhaps 
Physical ne cared little for them. God, he felt, was nearer to 
his soul ; and he could put no confidence in a system 
which professed to seek Him by climbing up into the heights 
of the physical heavens, or by descending into the deep of la- 
borious intellectual abstractions. Grieved, and sick at heart, 
therefore, he turned from the Pythagorean, and began to look 
elsewhere for help in his spiritual need. 

His next experience was in connection with some of the fol- 
lowers of Plato. Here he was better satisfied. In the world of 
Becomes a richly imaginative and mystic speculation into which 

nist ' his new teachers introduced him, his soul began to 
warm and to expand ; his mind was at least agreeably occupied ; 
and though his heart was not as yet filled with the knowledge 
which alone could give it rest, he began to feel, as it were, the 
budding of the wings which were to lift it above self. Hope, in 
other words, revived within him. Intoxicated with a vague but 
delicious sense of spiritual beauty, he seemed to himself to be just 
upon the verge of the crowning joy. The unrealities of sense 
were fading from his view, and the vision of true being, nay, of 
God himself, might open upon him in a moment. So full was 
Philosophic he of this expectation, so earnest and real in the midst 
Dreams. Q f a c j ou( j f philosophic dreams, that he determined 
to withdraw himself entirely from the tumult of the world, and 
selecting the loneliest spot he could find on the seashore, there 
to await in silence and meditation the fulfilment of his hopes. 

Nor was he disappointed altogether in his confident expec- 
tation. He who heareth the young ravens that call upon Him, 
would not turn a deaf ear to so earnest a seeker as the 

He 77l€6ts 

with an eager and unselfish Platonician. As Justin walked and 

/^7 ' ) fJf^fJ. P"P. 'List 

mused, within hearing of the multitudinous voices of 
the sea, he was met by a grave old man of a certain sweetness 



' Justin Marty?'. 1 3 3 

of expression. The philosopher was charmed. He stopped, 
and, unconsciously to himself, fixed his eyes eagerly upon the 
stranger. "Do you know me," said the latter, "that you 
gaze so earnestly upon me?" "No," answered Justin, "I 
am only surprised to meet one like you in this solitary place." 
"I am here," said the stranger, " because my soul is disquieted 
on account of certain of my friends. They are tossed on 
the sea, and I am anxious to find them, or hear tidings of 
them." 

The acquaintance thus mysteriously begun ripened soon into 
confidence and friendship. Justin discoursed of what was up- 
permost in his mind, the beauty and the sweetness of . . 

true philosophy. To know what really is, to seek and tian Phi- 
losopher. 
love the Truth, this, he declared, is the only thing 

worth living for, the only thing to fill and satisfy the heart. To 
his surprise he found the stranger more at home on such subjects 
than himself. Without any scientific pretension he The School 
spoke of the nature of God, of the soul, of the true of Ch '' 
philosophy of life, with a tranquillity and assurance that capti- 
vated the ingenuous seeker, and led him finally to the conclusion 
that if he was to make any progress in heavenly wisdom, .he 
must begin at the lowest round of the ladder, and become a 
disciple in the school of Jesus Christ. 

To this, however, he had to be led gradually, the prejudices 
against Christianity being as gross among the well-instructed 
heathen as among the rabble, and far more inveterate. „ , 

& ' . Study 

His teacher, therefore, was content to introduce him 0/ the 

Scriptures. 

to the Old Testament Scriptures, Struck with the 
sublimity and beauty of these sacred writings, he studied them 
with single-hearted earnestness ; thus laying the foundation of 
that hermeneutic skill which he ever afterwards regarded as his 
charisma, or spiritual gift. From the Old he was led easily into 
the New. The real character of Christianity, and the prejudices 
truth with regard to the life and conversation of its 
professors, began to dawn upon him. "I had heard much 
against them," says he, "and shared in the common delusion. 



134 History of the Church. 

But when I considered their courage in encountering death and 
every other terror, I felt at once that they could not be guilty 
of the crimes of which they were accused. To a mere voluptu- 
ary, to a shameless debauchee, to one who takes delight in eat- 
ing human flesh, death cannot prove otherwise than terrible ; for 
it puts on end to the gross pleasures in which they spend their 
life. The Christians, however, welcome death with joy." 2 
Considerations of this kind opened the way to inquiry, and 
inquiry led to satisfaction and conviction. 

That he ever entered the ministry is extremely doubtful. 3 
Indeed, in the absence of any positive proof that he did, it 
Justin 's seems more probable that he found his "gift" could 
Calling. k e exerc i se d t0 greater advantage under the garb of a 
philosopher, and in the freedom of lay life, than amid the con- 
fining and pressing duties of the ordinary priesthood. Certain 
it is that he visited many countries, and had argumentative dis- 
PubUc Dis- cussions both with Jews and Greeks. His controversy 
in Ephesus with Trypho, a learned Jew who had sur- 
vived the horrors of the insurrection of Bar Cochba, and his two 
Apologies, addressed, the one to the Emperor Aurelius, and the 
other to the Roman Senate and People, with some other works 
or fragments of works, remain to show the way in which these 
discussions were conducted. Without going into an analysis of 
any of these writings, 4 it is worth while to notice, that Justin 
interpreted both Hebrew and Greek learning on the same gen- 
eral principles ; finding in both innumerable types or foreshad- 
christ owings of the truth of the Gospel ; and making all 
tn alL earnest thought of all ages, and all races, to centre, as 
it were, in the incarnate Word, to point towards Him, and in 
Him to receive its complete and harmonious interpretation. 

2 Apol. i. 

3 Tillemont thinks he was a Presbyter — Mem. pour servir. vol. ii. part 2 
— -but on insufficient grounds. 

4 Account of the Writings and Opinions of Justin Martyr : John (Kaye), 
Bishop of Lincoln. Justin, d. Marty rer, Semisch, translated by Ryland, and 
published in Clark's Biblical Cabinet. Volckmar, die Zeit. ds. Just. M. 



Justin Martyr. 135 

Thus, not the Law and the Prophets only, but the Poets and 
Philosophers, were fulfilled in Christ. 

In fact, the Logos, the First-born of God, who is also God, 
being from all eternity immanent in God, but coming forth from 
God for creation, was regarded by Justin as the seed The 

light to the ages that preceded the revelation of the Sced - li s ht - 
Gospel ; so that upright heathen, Socrates for example, were 
undeveloped believers, being obedient to the light that was in 
them. 5 On this ground he apologizes for the lateness of the 
Incarnation. As the first days of the creation had light enough 
for growth, though destitute as yet of sun and moon and stars, 
so with the ages, and the races, among which Christ was unre- 
vealed. Justin, therefore, would not deny the good that ex- 
isted in heathendom ; he preferred showing how it pointed to a 
far greater good. It was somewhat inconsistent with all this, 
that he ascribed the numerous ceremonies which pagan worship 
had in common with Christianity, to the malicious apery of 
daemons ; these latter mimicking the truth in order to make it 
odious. 6 In tracing the unconscious prophecies of heathen 
poetry and philosophy, or even of heathen oracles, Justin, it 
must be confessed, is not very critical ; quoting oftentimes from 
works unquestionably spurious, and some of them fabrications 
of the age in which he lived. 

In his treatment of matters of faith, and especially in dealing 
with the great mysteries of the Creed, his orthodoxy in general 
is beyond all question. As an interpreter, however, to Justin's 
Jews and Greeks, and as one of the earliest who at- 
tempted, so to speak, to translate the language of simple faith 
into the dialect of philosophers and disputers, he is betrayed 
occasionally into modes of expression, which at a later period 
would hardly have been considered admissible, or safe. In all 
cases the phraseology of early writers has to be received with a 

5 The Logos endiathetos — Logos prophoricos — Logos spermaticos. See 
Neander's Lectures on the History of Christian Dogmas. 

6 e. g., Bread and wine used in the mysteries of Mithras ; and baptisms, 
or ablutions, in almost all forms of heathen worship. 



136 History of the Church. 

certain allowance. 7 It could hardly be expected that the first 
attempts to give a philosophic or scientific form to truths com- 
monly received in the Church should be entirely conclusive. 
The wonder is, not that we find some objectionable phrases in the 
early fathers, or some untenable positions, but that we find so few. 

With regard to matters of opinion, or interpretation, Justin 
fell into some mistakes from too careless a following of the letter 
H is of Holy Scripture. He was an advocate of the Millen- 

opimons. ar j an d oc trine. From a notion that the sons of God 
mentioned in the beginning of the sixth chapter of Genesis were 
Angels, he favored the absurd hypothesis that children were be- 
gotten by them of the daughters of men, and that the offspring 
thus begotten became Daemons of the Gentiles. It is more to 
his credit, that he departed from a common prejudice of his 
day, in allowing a possibility of salvation to Jewish Christians 8 
who conscientiously continued in the observance of the Law. 

As a witness to the religious customs of Christians in his 
day, Justin speaks with less reserve than was common with early 
Religions writers, and gives us the most exact information we 
have : the outline he presents supplying some feat- 
ures of ritual in which Pliny's famous letter is deficient 9 

7 For example, creation and generation were for some time more or less 
confounded. In the tenth chapter of Bishop Kaye's Writings of Justin 
Martyr the reader will find a summary of Justin's views, as illustrated by 
passages from Tatian, Athenagoras, and Theophilus. 

8 His lenient way of speaking of the Ebionite denial of the Divinity of 
Christ, in the Dialogue with Trypho, viz., " I do not agree with these, because 
I have been taught not to follow men, but the declarations of Christ and the 
Prophets" — has been regarded by some as indicative of a certain laxness in 
his views. I should rather infer the reverse. The firmer a man's faith, the 
better he can afford to use mild language. 

9 Kaye's Justin 31. chap. iv. Among the particulars mentioned, we 
may notice, (1) the doctrine of Baptism and the Eucharist, in which the grace 
given is much insisted on; (2) the careful preparation (fasting and prayer); 
(3) the kiss of peace; (4) wine mixed with water in the Eucharist; (5) the 
bearing of a portion to the absent ; (6) separation of the Eucharist from the 
Love Feast; (7) special observance of Sunday; (8) alms for orphans, wid- 
ows, etc. Apolog. i. 



Justin Martyr. 137 

Judging from his account, neither Baptism nor the Eucharist 
had received any ceremonial additions to the severe simplicity 
of Apostolic times. In describing the administration of the 
Lord's Supper, he seems to have followed the order of the 
Service now known as that of S. James. 10 

The latter portion of his life was spent by the Apologist in 
Rome, remaining all day at his house near the baths of Timo- 
His theus, and conversing freely with those who came to 

Con/esston. ^ m f or instruction or discussion. During this period 
he incurred the fixed hatred of the Stoic Crescens, whom he 
handled somewhat roughly in argument, and to whose influence 
in high quarters he was probably indebted for the Martyr's 
crown. According to the Acts of his Martyrdom," a piece 
authenticated by its primitive modesty and simplicity, he was 
brought, with several other Christians, before the tribunal of 
Junius Rusticus, Prefect of the City, not long before the death 
of S. Polycarp. 12 " Obey the will of the Gods and the com- 
mands of the Emperor" was, as usual, the opening of the trial. 
In Justin's reply, there is little of the sententious brevity or 
dignified reserve of a Polycarp or Pothinus ; nor does he take 
refuge in the simple Christianus sum, that ringing anvil-note of 
Lyonnese Sanctus : his attitude has more of the dialectician ; — 
a man of faith, indeed, but ready and even eager to give a 
reason for the faith that is in him. " There is nothing to rep- 
rehend in a man, who obeys the commands of our Saviour, 
Jesus Christ." '• But what is your profession ? " says Rusticus, 
to what school do you belong?" "I once strove," he replied, 
"to become acquainted with every school of philosophy, and to 
make myself master of every science ; but having sought the 
Truth on all sides without success, I finally embraced the philos- 
ophy of the Christians, not considering whether it pleased or 

10 Palmer's Origines Liturg. ; Asseman. Cod. LiUirg. torn. v. 

11 Given in Baronius ; also in Tillemont. 

12 The dates are uncertain : Polycarp's death is variously stated at 147, 
169, 175 ; Justin's is put as early as 165. I have put Justin after Polycarp 
and Pothimus, merely as belonging to a later period of intellectual culture. 



1 3$ History of the Church. 

displeased the votaries of error." "Wretched man!" cried 
the Prefect, " you fellow that doctrine, then? " " Yes. I follow 
that doctrine, and with joy, for it shows me the Truth." "But 
what is Truth?" "The Truth," answered Justin, "is to 
__. _ , believe in one God, who created all things, visible 

His Creed. ° 

and invisible, and to confess our Lord Jesus Christ 
the Son of God, announced long ago by the Prophets, Who is 
to come again to judge all men, and Who is the Saviour, as 
well as the Teacher of His true Disciples. Far be it from me 
to pretend to speak worthily of His infinite greatness or of 
his Divinity. Such a theme belongs rather to the Prophets, 
who so long before predicted His coming upon earth." The 
Prefect then asked him, in what place the Christians assembled 
for their worship. " We assemble where we can," said Justin : 
"God is not confined to any place. Invisible, He fills the 
Heavens and the Earth, and the faithful adore Him everywhere : 
in every place they offer Him the honor and worship due unto 
His Name." 

After some further questions, Rusticus addressed himself to 
the companions of Justin. Carito and Caritina answered, 
His Com- that by the goodness of God they were Christians. 
pamons. Euelpistus said, " I am a slave of Caesar, but a Chris- 
tian. Jesus Christ, by His grace, hath made me free." Hierax 
and Liberianus acknowledged themselves servants and adorers 
of the only true God. Seeing little chance of making an 
impression upon these simple folk, and feeling, it may be, more 
interest in the fate of their accomplished leader, the Prefect 
turned to Justin once more, and addressed him in a banter- 
ing tone: "You are a man with a tongue in your head, and 
a professor, it would seem, of the genuine philosophy. Tell 
me, then, I pray, do you really believe that if I have you 
scourged from head to foot, you will straightway go up to 
Heaven?" "Yes," said Justin, "if you have me 

His Hope. . . / . 

scourged, I hope to receive the reward promised to 
all those who keep the commandments of Christ : for I know 
that all who live by this rule shall be the friends of God." 



Justin Martyr. 139 

" You think, then," said the Prefect, " that you are going up to 
Heaven to be rewarded there? " " Not only do I think it," 
answered Justin, " but I know it: and that, too, assuredly and 
beyond all doubt." 

The examination was followed by the usual command to 
sacrifice to idols ; which the prisoners unanimously Martyr- 
refusing to do, they were scourged, 13 and soon after- dom ; 

wards beheaded. 

In this trial, as indeed in all controversies of that day, with 
Jews or Gentiles, Christianity had to cope with that hard, and 
keen, and exquisitely polished irony, which is one of Scojfi?ig 
the fruits of a merely intellectual civilization, and 5r*/jj 
which to simple faith is the most horrible of all Heathen. 
weapons. Men of the school of S. Polycarp avoided it, no 
doubt, by a holy and dignified reserve. The time was come, 
however, for a closer and more deadly struggle with the powers 
of darkness. It is much to Justin Martyr's credit, that in his 
dialogues, apologies, and discussions generally, he was suffi- 
ciently free-spoken, but not unnecessarily harsh or rude. On 
the contrary, he answers sneers generally with admirable tem- 
per ; and a love of souls is almost as conspicuous in his writings 
as a zeal for the Truth. His own very gradual conversion led 
him to look hopefully upon the various stages of approximate 
belief and partial knowledge. 

Among his disciples was Tatian, an Assyrian, who wrote 
with some earnestness in defence of "the philosophy of the bar- 
barians," as he styled the Gospel, but was afterwards Tatian hh 
led by his austerity of temper into Gnostic errors. Dtscipu. 
The " Epistle to Diognetus," a choice rhetorical production of 
some Christian Apologist who wrote early in the century, has 
been ascribed to Justin Martyr, but on no sufficient grounds. 

x 3 As Justin, it is supposed, had the right of citizenship, the scourging 
here mentioned throws a shade of doubt upon the genuineness of these acts. 
But ( 1 ) his citizenship is not certain ; and (2) even if it were, the Roman 
Magistrates were not always scrupulous about such rights in the case of 
Christians. 



1 40 History of the Church, 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE APOLOGETIC AGE. 

The last third of the second century, the period that followed 
the persecution under Marcus Aurelius, is uneventful so far as 
End of the external history is concerned, but full of growing 

ury ' interest with regard to matters of discipline and 
doctrine. 

During the reign of Aurelius, Melito, Bishop of Sardis, 

wrote to the Emperor his Apology for a Faith, which had come 

in, he urged, with the Empire itself, but was left 

Melito. . . 

without redress to the capricious violence of the mob. 
He was a highly gifted man, and among his contemporaries 
enjoyed the reputation of a Prophet. He drew up a canon of 
the Old Testament, containing only the received Books of the 
Hebrew Scriptures. The variety of subjects on which he wrote 1 
is enough to show that the holy diffidence which had produced 
so long a spell of silence in the Church at the beginning of the 
century, was fast giving way before the pressure of the times. 

Claudius Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, wrote 
an Apology ; and was not a little troubled by the rising heresy 
other of Montanus. Of other names indicative of the awak- 
Apoiogists. ene( j intellect of the day, it is enough to mention, in 
this place, Miltiades, an Apologist; Hermias, who ridiculed the 
paradoxes of the philosophers; Athenagoras an Athenian 
philosopher ; Theophilus, the sixth Bishop of Antioch, who 
introduced the term trias ; Tatian a disciple of Justin Martyr, 
and Bardesanes an elegant writer of Edessa, both of whom fell 
into Gnostic errors ; Musanus, who strove against the plausible 

1 Euseb. iv. 26. 



The Apologetic Age, 141 

error which went under the name of encraty or continence; 
Minucius Felix and Tertullian in North Africa ; Irenseus and his 
disciples ; the writers of the Alexandrine School, of whom, as 
of some others above mentioned, there will be occasion to speak 
more particularly in another place. 2 The title "Apologetic 
Age," applied to this period, has to be understood in a large 
sense ; for the controversy with heretics was conducted with 
even greater vigor than the defence of the Gospel against the 
heathen. 

On the other hand, Heathenism was no longer content to 
assail the Faith with the weapons of fanatical fury merely, or of 
a variable state policy. Philosophy was awakened to Heathen 
a sense of its own danger. 3 Crescens and Fronto °^ oncnts 
endeavored by vile calumnies to fortify Aurelius with a valid 
plea for persecution. Lucian impartially derided all the relig- 
ions of his times, and found a butt for his satiric humor in the 
zeal of Martyrs and Confessors. Celsus confounded Christianity 
with the dreams of Gnostic sects, and, avoiding the ground 
of vulgar paganism, assailed it, now with the light missiles of 
Epicurean indifferentism, now with the heavier metal of the 
Platonic philosophy. As the controversy proceeded, the adver- 
saries of the Gospel resorted more and more to this method of 
attack. On the one hand, the Christian name could be made to 
cover an ever increasing number of absurd and wicked sects j on 
the other, philosophy, through the influence of the diffused 
light of truth, was becoming more intellectual and more spiritual 
than it had hitherto appeared. The new Platonic School began 
to flourish in Alexandria towards the end of the cen- 

Neiu 

tury. Ammonius Saccas, one of its first teachers, was Platonic 

School. 

acquainted with Christianity. So also was Plotinus, 

and at a later period Porphyry, the latter of whom was hostile 

2 See Euseb. iv. 21-30; v. 13, 18, 19. 

s The argument for and against the Gospel, as managed in early times, is 
accessible to English readers in Reeves's Apologies (Tertullian, Justin Martyr, 
Minucius Felix) ; also in Bellamy's Origen against Celsus, and Humphrey's 
Apologetics of Athenagoras. See also Oxford Translations of the Fathers. 



1 42 History of the Church. 

to the Gospel in proportion as he drew from it his noblest and 
best thoughts. 

But philosophers of this kind belonged to an intellectual 
oligarchy, and had little influence with the people. They 
Apoiionius were also wonderfully superstitious. 4 The wonder- 
ed J ,(i > working life of Apoiionius of Tyana, a contemporary 
of the Apostles, was rescued from oblivion by rhetoricians of 
this school, adorned with a profusion of unmeaning miracles, 
and set up as an embodiment of the philosophic perfect man. 
A strict vegetable diet, a pure Attic style, a sententious utter- 
ance of commonplaces, an attempt to relieve heathen worship 
of some of its grosser abominations, a profound contempt for 
the unenlightened many, and an appreciation of the maxim that 
knowledge is power, are prominent features of the ideal thus 
The ideal constructed in opposition to Christianity. According 
to them, the true sages dwell, surrounded with a cloud 
and armed with superhuman resources, on a height inaccessible 
to the common herd. The soul lives after death separate from 
the body, but of its ultimate destiny it is unwise to inquire. 
Such was the lesson of the Life of Apoiionius. 5 The poverty of 
this performance, as compared with the matchless Life recorded 

4 rorphyrius, De Vita Plotini, found in Fabricii, Bibliothec. Grcec. lib. iv. 
cap. 26. Plotinus professed to have a god for his familiar ; which was proved 
when a certain Egyptian priest of Isis attempted to call up the daemon of 
Plotinus ; for instead of a doemon a god suddenly appeared. Vita Plotin. 
cap. 10. On the strength of this, when one of his disciples invited him to go 
with him and worship the gods, Plotinus answered, " They should come to 
me, not I to them." With all these pretensions, his high favor with Gal- 
lienus and the Empress could not obtain for him the gift of a ruined city in 
Campania, to establish a Platonic commonwealth: cap. 12. The Christians 
gloried, therefore, that while Platonic wisdom had never succeeded in 
founding a single town, the words of a few fishermen were becoming a 
law to the whole world. On the new Platon. Sch. see Degerando, H. de 
la Phil. 

5 Life of Apoiionius of Tyana, translated by the Rev. Edward Berwick. 
The miracles of Apoiionius (as Newman shows in his Apollon. Tyan.) are 
mere juggling wonders, without dignity and without meaning. After his 
death, his ghost appeared to a young disciple, but gave him no information. 



The Apologetic Age. 143 

in the four Gospels, shows that Christianity had little to fear 
from the rivalry of philosophers. 

In the meanwhile, the Church had a season of comparative 
immunity from political persecution. The Emperor Aurelius, 
moved by a Providential deliverance of his army from Legio 

the Quadi and Marcomanni, 6 which the Christians Fulminea 
ascribed to the prayers of certian soldiers of their own in the 
"Thundering Legion," became, at length, weary of a fruitless 
persecution, and issued a severe edict against informers. That 
the event referred to awakened a religious feeling in the mind 
of the Emperor there can be no doubt. It seems equally cer- 
tain that his own thanks were rendered to Jupiter Pluvius. It 
may easily have been, however, that, his mind being restored 
for the time being to something of its early childlike faith, 7 he 
looked more indulgently upon religious fervor in general, and 
was therefore disposed to be more tolerant of the peculiar zeal 
of the Christians. For it was the lively faith of the Church, 
rather than its doctrinal system, that seems hitherto to have 
moved his hatred. 

Commodus, whose atrocities sprang from personal caprice 
rather than from any political or religious principle, Commodus, 
was in the main not unfavorable to Christians ; and 180-192'. 
Marcia, his mistress, whom he honored almost as an Empress, 
used her influence in their behalf. Notwithstanding Apoiionius 
all this, there were martyrs not a few in this reign. a Mart y r - 
Apoiionius, a literary man and philosopher of Rome, a Sen- 

6 The story is given in Eusebius, v. 5. The name Legio Fulminea was 
older, however, than the alleged event ; and Tertullian's account is qualified 
by the word "perhaps" — " Christianorum forte militum." See Gieseler, 
\ 42, n. 5, and Neander's Ch. Hist. i. 1. 

7 In the mind of Aurelius, early religious feeling had to struggle against 
a hard crust of stoic fatalism. It was in this latter spirit that he declared : 
"Whosoever shall do anything to disturb the minds of men with fear of the 
Divine power ... let him be banished," etc. ; or, " Whosoever shall bring in 
novel religions ... by which the souls of men may be troubled, let him," . . . 
etc. He hated anything fervid or moving in religion. For an account of his 
religious character (perhaps too favorable), see Neander's Ch. History. 



j 44 History of the Church. 

ator by rank, was condemned on the testimony of a slave, 
and beheaded, after a noble apology before that stronghold of 
heathenism, the distinguished body to which he belonged. 
At the same time, the law bearing on the subject being admin- 
istered with singular impartiality, the wretch who accused him 
was also put to death. 

Septimius Severus, it is said, 8 had been healed of a sore 
disease by a Christian of the name of Proculus, afterwards a 
Septimius member of his household ; and had appointed a Chris- 
j-rrr;«, t j an nurse f or ^ son Antoninus. If not actually 
192-211. favorable to the Church, he was at least indisposed to 
molest it. But about the middle of his reign he found it ne- 
cessary, as he thought, to prohibit the further spread of the 
Gospel. Proselyting was forbidden both to the Jews and Chris- 
tians. Finding, however, that in spite of his decrees the tide 
continued to rise, the Emperor was at length induced to counte- 
Sixtk Per- nance more active measures. The storm that ensued 
ecution. f e Y\ with most severity upon Palestine and Egypt ; but 
was felt also in North Africa, Rome, and many other portions 
of the Church. From certain expressions of Tertullian 9 it may 
be doubted whether Severus himself was actively concerned in 
this persecution. It was enough that he allowed it. The cruelty 
of the mob, the complaisance or cupidity of magistrates, and the 
hostility of Jews, heathen, and philosophers, would easily do the 
rest. For to other causes of persecution it began now to be 
added that there were Christians wealthy and weak enough to 
purchase for themselves an exemption from martyrdom. With- 
out sacrificing to idols or burning incense, they might procure 

8 Tertull. Ad Scap. iii. 4. 

9 Blunt's Lectures on the Church of the first three centuries ; Mosheim's 
Commentaries. Tertullian (Apologet. i. 5, and ad Scap. iii. 4) is anxious to 
make out that no good Emperor persecuted the Christians, and no really good 
magistrate ; but that the rabble and wicked men were responsible. He there- 
fore strains a point in favor of Marcus Aurelius, Severus, and others. His 
language, however, merely proves that these Emperors were sometimes favor- 
able to the Christians. 



The Apologetic Age. 145 

a certificate to the effect that they had done so, and might thus 
remain unmolested. These were called Libellatici ; LibeUaUci. 
a class that figures largely in the history of Church discipline 
during the third century. 

Whole communities, it is said, procured exemption in this 
way. It was a kind of evasion as impolitic as it was unjusti- 
fiable on moral grounds. 10 For it not only created a new 
motive for persecution, but it surrounded Christians at all 
times with a crowd of greedy spies and informers, who made 
a livelihood out of their fears and kept them in a state of per- 
petual torture. 

Some of the particulars of this persecution will come up 
incidentally in connection with events hereafter to be men- 
tioned. It was followed by a calm of thirty-eight p eaC eof 
years, interrupted only by a brief and cruel out- . ^y c r J^~ 
break under Maximin the Thracian, which is reck- A.D.211-249. 
oned as the seventh of the general persecutions. During this 
interval of peace, the sun-worshipper Elagabalus wished to 
blend Christianity, as well as the religion of Tews and 

. . . A.D. 235-238. 

Samaritans, with the superstitious worship paid to his 
god." Alexander Severus, influenced by his half- Christian 
mother Julia Mammaea, was disposed to admit Christ to equal 
honors in the sacrifices offered to Abraham, Orpheus, and 
Apollonius of Tyana. 12 Philip the Arabian was still more favor- 
able to Christianity; and it was very generally thought that 
intellectually, at least, he was a believer. 13 

But, as already intimated in the beginning of this chapter, 
the favor or disfavor of princes, and the presence or absence of 

10 A worse evasion [Can. of Ancyra, i.) was, by a previous understand- 
ing with the magistrates, to undergo a mere sham torture, or threats of tor- 
ture, without being placed in any real danger. Shifts of this sort made the 
Christians more careful in insisting upon actual scars, or mutilations, on the 
part of those who claimed to be confessors. 

" Lampridius in Heliogab. 3. 

12 Lamprid. in S. Alex. 22, 28, 29, 43, 45, 49. 

*3 Euseb. vi. 34, 36. His conversion is elaborately discussed, and dis- 
proved, in Pagi, Breviarium Pontific. etc. S. Fabianus. 



146 History of the Church. 

external persecutions, were no longer the most prominent of the 
„, . , trials of the Church. There were difficulties from 

I rials 

/torn within, far more formidable. What these were, how 

iv it Inn. 

they were encountered, and by what means and to 
what extent they were finally vanquished, shall be the special 
theme of the remaining chapters of this Book. 



CHAPTER VII. 

HERESIES AND SCHOOLS. 

The twofold struggle between the Gospel and the Law, and 
between Faith and a false Gnosis, had been in its main elements, 
and so far as it was a contest for supremacy within the 
church Church, substantially decided long before the depart- 
ure of the last of the Apostles. In doctrine, discipline, 
and worship, the Church was free to take her own course ; hav- 
ing a creed, a polity, and divinely taught sacraments of her 
own, with liberty in building thereupon to avail herself of what 
elements of natural religion she might find to accord with this 
foundation, whether sanctioned or not by Judaic prejudices. 
In the same way with regard to the Gnostics, it was 

Neither J ° ' 

Jewish nor perfectly understood that theirs was a " Gnosis falsely 

Gnostic. J J 

so called." In developing, therefore, a Gnosis, or 
religious science of her own, the Church regarded Gnostic prin- 
ciples with horror and aversion. By the end of the first century 
she was Anti-Jewish and Anti-Gnostic in heart and mind and 
confession. 

Hence, Judaizing Christians soon drew off into obscure, 

and, so far as the body of the Church was concerned, uninflu- 

I. ential sects. In the great cities, however, and among 

TuDAIST 

sects. the mixed multitudes, half Christian half Heathen, the 
leaven of the circumcision was still powerful enough to foment 



Hei'esies and Schools. 147 

factions and divisions. The Nazarenes and Ebionites, men- 
tioned in the first Book of this history, flourished chiefly in 
Palestine. 

The Clementine Homilies, 1 so called, remain to the present 
day as proof of a very ingenious effort made, towards the end of 
the second century, to fall back upon a pretended T j ie C iem- 
primitive religion ; a "house of wisdom," as it were, 
of which Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, 
should be the "seven pillars," Christ also being acknowledged 
as greatest of them all. This system was remarkable for a full- 
blown doctrine of papal supremacy ; 2 James of Jerusalem, how- 
ever, being placed at its head. To the Judaic elements of the 
system there was added a Gnostic theory of emanations in pairs. 
These Clementines express the sentiments of the Elxaite school, 
but were probably revamped by some philosophic Roman, in the 
interest of one or other of the Judaizing factions which troubled 
the great city. 

Hippolytus gives us more precise information of \X\eJElxaites, 
a Judaic Gnostic sect, a branch of which came to Rome during 
the pontificate of Callistus. 3 They made Christ the 

Elxaites, 

male, and the Holy Ghost the female, in a series of (about) 

ry-,. ' AD. 220. 

successive manifestations or incarnations. They were 
ascetic in their habits, but differed from most ascetics by enjoin- 
ing early marriage as a duty, and condemning virginity. To that 
numerous class of Christians, whose consciences were troubled 
by the sense of post-baptismal sins, or who were undergoing 
Church discipline, they offered an attractive bait in a new bap- 
tism with plenary absolution, to be repeated as often as required. 
This baptism was made extremely solemn and impressive. The 

1 Clementis Roman, qua feruntur Homilice, etc., Gott. 1853. See Giese- 
ler, \ 58 ; Schaff, \ 69. 

2 Clement addresses James as " the lord, and bishop of bishops, ruler of 
the holy Church of the Hebrews in Jerusalem, and of the Churches of God 
established everywhere." 

3 S. Hippolyti, Refut. Omn. Hceresium, lib. ix. 13. The state of the 
Roman Church, and the position of Hippolytus towards the Bishops of the 
city, are more fully treated in ii. 9, and iii. 4, of this History. 



i 48 History of the Church. 

candidate "was immersed in the Name of the Most High, and 
of His Son the Great King, and with invocation of 

Baptisms. 

the seven Witnesses, sky and water, and holy, spirits, 
and prayer-angels, and oil, and salt, and earth." In the name 
of these they were to renounce all past and future sin. The 
gospel of these Eixaites, "Be converted and baptized cum toto 
vestitu" u was an offer of free, immediate, and unconditional 
pardon to all sinners of every sort ; and, at a time when the 
Church required a long catechumenal probation before baptism, 
and a tedious and severe penance for sins committed after, it 
must have proved a formidable rival to the orthodox faith. In 
addition to this, there were pretensions to supernatural powers; 
a secret doctrine imparted only to the initiated; great reverence 
for the Sabbath ; and an affectation of severity and simplicity 
of manners. Hippolytus complains that Callistus paved the way 
Laxity of f° r this heresy by his lax administration of the disci- 
Discipune. ^y mQ Q f the Q lurcn> j t i s more p ro bable that the 

activity of Sects of this kind, and the attractions they held out 
to the mixed multitude of half-believers, rendered a strict 
enforcement of the canons practically impossible. In the same 
way, their elaborate and significant ceremonial may have had 
an influence upon the development of ritual in the Church, 

Men who started with the assumption common to all the phi- 
losophers of antiquity, 5 that evilinheres in matter, could not regard 
n. matter or the material world as a creature of the supreme 
GxosTicisM. and onl y g00( j God _ Either it must be eternal, or it 

must be the work of an evil power, or it must be the rubbish, so 

4 For baptism in the Church, candidates had to be divested of their clothing 
— putting off the old and putting on the new. The opposite custom of the 
Eixaites was probably meant to signify that they were ready to receive sinners 
just as they were. 

5 Even Plato : see Gieseler, § 44, notes 1-5. The tenets of the Gnostic 
sects belong to the history of philosophy, rather than of religion. The ancient 
writers on the subject are brought together in the Corpus Hceresiologicum, 
Franciscus Oehler, Berolini. There is quite a full account of early heresies 
in the History of the Church, etc., by Jeremie and others ; and an excellent 
digest in Dr. Schaff 's History, and in Robertson's Hist, of Ch. 



Heresies and Schools. 1 49 

to speak, that remained after the framing of the spiritual ple- 
roma, or it must be the result of some negligence or accident 
with which the one absolute and true Being had nothing at all 
to do. Hence the main effort of Gnostic speculations. The 
material world and the evil that clings to it must be God and 
removed as far as possible from that unfathomable and * e World - 
silent Deep, the Fountain of all good. Endless genealogies 
must be framed, 5 of angels, ceons, or emanations, issu- yEon 

ing singly or in pairs through a descending, widening ystem. 
and deteriorating scale ; till at length, in the dim twilight 
beyond the outermost circle of the pleroma, on the border of 
light and darkness, good and evil, being and no being, we find 
the Demiurgus blindly working : " the nether intelligence," the 
offspring of the lowest aeon, the ruler of the darkness, the archi- 
tect of this material world constructing out of '•emptiness" 
and "nothingness" a huge prison-house; wherein the lowest 
and fallen aeon, the feeblest ray of the world of light, groans 
and struggles for deliverance, finding an articulate voice in the 
"spiritual" soul of man. For the recovery of this The Lost 
'•' lost sheep," Christ the Saviour, an aeon of the highest sheep. 
order, comes down into the world. As He glides through the 
aeon-circles He forms to Himself a body of ethereal elements ; 
or on His arrival unites Himself for awhile to the earthly body 
of Jesus ; or, abhorring all communion with matter, assumes a 

6 The following are the principal points of the system : ( i ) The primal 
Being — Buthos, the Abyss — Sige, Silence — or even 6 ovk wv, nonentity; (2) 
filer oma — the living sphere of ceons, or spiritual emanations; (3) kenoma — the 
void that lies beyond that sphere; (4) demiurgus — the world-creator; (5) 
hyle — matter; (6) pneumatic, psychic^ hylic — spiritual, sensuous, material 
souls. From Christianity they borrowed the idea of a Saviour. Dualism is 
well defined by Plato ; " Not by one soul merely is the world moved, but by 
several perhaps, or at all events by not less than two ; of which the one is 
beneficent, the other the opposite, and a framer of the opposite; besides which, 
there is also a third somewhere between, not senseless, nor irrational, nor with- 
out self-motion, but touching upon both of the twain, yet always longing for 
the better, and following after it." The Persians called the good Ormuzd, 
the evil Ahriman, and the intermediate Mithras. 



150 History of the Church. 

docetic or apparitional body. Once on earth, He becomes 
through the Holy Spirit the light-centre of the world. To Him 
all " spiritual " souls are drawn by the gnosis which He gives 
them; 7 " material " or hylic souls gravitate towards the matter ; 
" psychic " souls, Jews or ordinary Christians, hover betwixt the 
Salvation two - At length, in one way or another, the lost ray 
y Gnosis. qC SU p erna i ]{ght being extricated from the slough or 
prison-house of matter, and united to the highest aeon in an 
everlasting wedlock, the plcroma is rounded off into a complete 
and consistent whole; matter, or the kenoma, finally disappears; 
and a transcendental life, flowing with equal pulse from the centre 
to the circumference, or back again from the circumference to the 
centre, diffuses an unmixed and superabundant joy. 

Such, in a general way, was the scheme upon which the 
Gnostics labored ; each particular workman, however, fashion- 
The m g it according to his own fancy, and adorning it 

urge ' with his own pomp of great swelling words. In all 

its forms, the Demiuige was identified with the God of the Old 

Testament. Whether He and His works were to be treated as 

simply evil, or impotently vacillating between the evil and the 

good, would be determined by the extent to which 

Dualism. 

Eastern dualism was admitted into the system. For 
on the dualistic scheme matter was not a mere void, it was an 
active principle of evil ; and the world, in the same way, was 
not a mere prison-house, but the battle-ground, as it were, be- 
tween the two rival kingdoms of light and darkness. 

In the same way, while all Gnostics agreed to despise the 
body, those who held to the dualistic belief were in general the 
Gnostic most earnest ; and took part in the fierce struggle 
Morals. between the two kingdoms by rushing into the extreme 
of Oriental asceticism. The Hellenic Gnostics were more 
indulgent, or more ingenious ; and left the flesh to destroy 
itself by following its own will. The filthiness into which 
some of these wretches sank, could have flowed from nothing 

7 This gnosis they represented as a secret tradition, communicated only to 
the initiated few. 



Heresies and Schools. 1 5 1 

short of demoniacal possession. It was somewhat inconsistent 
with their contempt for the world and for the body, that they 
recognized in things below an image or adumbration of the 
supersensuous sphere ; so that, to attain any knowledge of the 
world of truth, one has to go up along the path of sense and 
sight. On this principle, both nature and the Scriptures were 
allegorized, but in a purely arbitrary manner. 

So far as Gnosticism was consistent, it was too speculative 
and " spiritual " to be bound by creeds, scriptures, sacraments, 
or anything external. 8 As it aimed at influence, how- Gnostic 
ever, it had to accommodate itself to the "psychical " Cuitus. 
element in man. Hence it copied more or less of the ritual 
of the Church. It had a water baptism for the "psychical," a 
baptism of the Spirit for the "spiritual." The Lord's Two 

Supper was rejected by some, because, says S. Igna- Ba P ttsms - 
this, they believed not in the "flesh" or Incarnation of the 
Lord ; and celebrated with much pomp and with blasphemous 
additions, by others. In fact, while a few speculative minds 
might be content with that Gnosis, which they regarded as the 
sum of all worship, others more eager to gain proselytes would 
resort to every art to win the attention and the favor of the 
sensuous multitude. Gnosis, as a philosophy, there- Gnosis as a 
fore, is to be distinguished from Gnosis as a religion. Pklioso ^ h y- 
In the former aspect, it was a grand but futile effort to fuse 
fact and fable, poetry and "mythology, philosophy and science, 
magic and religion, into one consistent whole, which 

Its Merits. 

should satisfy the spiritual as well as the intellectual 
wants of man, and solve the deep questions which so far neither 
religion nor philosophy had been able to answer. This was 
attempted by a process of intuition, so called, which was in fact 
nothing more than guessing. Whatever praise, therefore, can 
be accorded to fanciful and ingenious guessing, the better class 
of Gnostics more or less deserve. But as an offset to this merit, 
they originated nothing in morals, religion, philosophy, science, 
or literature, that has stood the test of time ; they constructed, 
8 For the Gnostic cuitus, see Neander's Church History. 



1 5 2 History of the Church. 

nothing that has been able to hold together. 9 If it be admitted 
that they were the profoundest and most brilliant, it must be 
conceded also that they were the most barren, of all the heretics 
of antiquity. 

Arising, as they did, at a time when the intellect of the 
Church was just awakening to a consciousness of its strength — 
influence moving moreover in the literary sphere, and abound- 
ing in bold assertions and brilliant generalizations — 
they bore undoubtedly a most portentous aspect to minds of an 
imaginative and philosophic turn ; and in this way we can 
account for the attention given to them by so many of the most 
distinguished early Christian writers. But behind all this there 
was little of real earnestness or power. The system, on the 
whole, was merely an expiring effort of philosophic and poetic 
paganism, exhibiting the brilliant colors of the dolphin as it 
dies. It was the morning mist, as it were, the fog that had 
settled upon the world during the long night of heathen dark- 
Moming ness, breaking up into gorgeous clouds before the Sun 
clouds. Q £ Christianity, reflecting in varied hues the light 
before which it fled, and, it may be added, carrying off along 
with it much of the miasma with which the spiritual atmosphere 
had been so long infected. For the contest with Gnosticism was 
Benefit to of no little service to the Church. Christians did not 
the church. loye the Q ld Testament less, when they found that 
Gnostics abhorred it. Nor did the continued assaults upon the 
Incarnation, or the Creed, or upon the authority of one portion 
or another of the New Testament, render them less zealous in 
defence of those sacred trusts. In the same way, Gnostic aus- 
terities made the Church look more sharply to the grounds of 

9 Dr. Schaff, while he seems to blame the Fathers for representing it as 
" an unintelligible congeries of puerile absurdities and impious blasphemies," 
yet grants it to be a system in which " monstrous nonsense and the most 
absurd conceits are chaotically mixed up with profound thoughts and poetical 
intuitions." The Fathers say the same; only they ascribe the "profound 
thoughts and poetical intuitions" to the old philosophers and poets from whom 
they were borrowed, and give the Gnostics credit only for the " monstrous 
nonsense." See Degerando, H. de la Phil. xx. xxi. 



Heresies and Schools. 153 

ascetic tendencies within her own pale. The great principle, 
in short, that there is one good God who hath made all things- 
good, so that, as S. Ignatius expressed it, even bodily acts are 
spiritual if done in the Spirit, was more deeply stamped into 
Christian consciousness from the fact that these versatile and 
pretentious heretics so unanimously denied it. 

To this it maybe added, that their claim to a peculiar gnosis, 
or science, distinguished from simple faith, made the develop- 
ment of Christian theology a matter of necessity. 10 Positive 
The false gnosis could be refuted effectually, only by In -fl uence - 
confronting it with a genuine gnosis. On the other hand, the 
Gnostics corrupted heathenism. By putting metaphysical abstrac- 
tions, such as mind, word, thought, wisdom, power, justice, peace, 
in the place of the old nature-gods of the theogonies, they per- 
verted good poetry into a dry and unintelligible jargon : and 
stripped Polytheism of that sensuous beauty which was its prin- 
cipal attraction. The Neo-Platonic school fell into the same 
mistake. The poetic mythology was at least true to nature : that 
is, to a fallen and corrupt nature. The philosophic mythologies 
of Gnostics and Neo-Platonists were true to nothing. In help- 
ing, therefore, to expose the absurdities of the older systems, 
they awakened a critical sense by which their own absurdities 
were exploded with the rest. 

Of particular sects, those which had most of the Greek 
element, were most unreal, and on the whole most in. 

inclined to Antinomianism. Simon Magus, Menander, Sects. 
and Cerinthus have been mentioned among the heretics of the 
first century. 

In the second century, Carpocrates, who probably taught in 
Alexandria about the time of the Emperor Hadrian, Aiexan- 
made his aeon-system a cloak for incredible abom- Gnostics. 
inations." His son Epiphanes died young, and was worshipped 

10 Neander, History of Dogmas. 

11 Community and equality'''' (z. e., community of goods, of wives, of 
everything) they represented to be " the true divine law, human laws put 
asunder what God hath put together." Clemens Alex. Stromal, iii. 

7* 



154 History of the Church. 

as a god. Of the same sort with the Carpocratians were the 
Antitactes, Prodicians, and many others. 

Basilides and Valentinus, both Alexandrians, were far more 
intellectual, and framed systems remarkable for brilliant but 
Basilides, perverse ingenuity. 12 There is a God who is not, and 
of whom nothing can be said. There is a world-seed, 
a great egg as it were, containing within it the germs of a spir- 
itual, psychical, and material development. From this, devel- 
oped according to numerical proportions, come the Ogdoad 
and Hebdomad, with their respective Archons, or world-rulers, 
and the Abraxas, or three hundred and sixty-five Heavens : 
this latter representing God, so far as He is manifested. Christ 
is the nous or highest aeon, which united itself to the man Jesus 
at His baptism ; in memory of which the followers of Basilides 
celebrated the baptism as the Epiphany on the sixth of January. 
The later Basilideans adopted the views of the Docetae, and held 
it lawful to deny the Name of Christ. They were also grossly im- 
moral, and were much addicted to magic, attributing a sovereign 
Vaientinus, efficacy to their abraxas gems. Valentinus, the most 
a.d 125-140. { n g en { ous of all the Gnostics, made his aeons emanate in 
pairs. His Christ was apparitional or docetic, coming into the 
Marco- world through Mary, as water through a pipe. The 
Slans - sects that sprang from these leaders, especially the 

infamous Marcosians, were a disgrace to humanity, and brought 
no little scandal upon the Christian name. 

The Ophites, or Naassenes, got their name from the Ophis, 
ophites. Serpent, — regarding the Serpent that tempted Eve as 
a symbol of Sophia, Wisdom, or of Christ himself. 13 Their 
Sethites, peculiarities gave occasion to the Heathen to accuse 
Canutes. Christians of serpent worship. A similar blasphemy 
of Scripture was found among the Sethi tes, Cainites, and others 

12 For an excellent account of the tenets and different sects of the Alexan- 
drian Gnostics, see " Some Account of the Writings and Opinions of Clement 
of Alexandria, by John Bishop of Lincoln." 

x 3 0r, according to others, Sophia was the defective female mind. For 
interesting remarks on these sects, see Bunsen's Hippolytus, vol. i. p. 35. 



Heresies and Schools. 155 

of the same sort. The world and its order being evil, every- 
thing that helps to destroy the world or confound its order 
was regarded as the struggle of the imprisoned celestial spark. 
Hence even the Sodomites and Judas Iscariot were by some held 
in religious honor. 

The Syrian or Oriental Gnostics were more decidedly dual- 
istic in their views, and perhaps more hostile to the Sy r i?- n 

' x x Gnostics. 

Old Testament. 

In their practice they were rigidly ascetic. Saturninus was 
the name best known among them. His followers, to avoid all 
contact with the evil principle or with the race of evil 

• • ii • r Saturninus. 

men, abstained from marriage and the eating of flesh. 

A particular interest attaches to the name of Bardesanes of 

Edessa, once a Christian philosopher and an able 

Bardesanes. 

defender of the Truth. He believed in two eternal 
principles, derived evil from matter, and denied the kesurrec- 
tion. He obtained honor, however, as a confessor ; and many 
of his writings, especially his elegant treatise on Fate, were 
highly esteemed in the Church. 

Cerdo, a Syrian who came to Rome early in the century, 
seems to have found a starting-point for his heresy in the effort 
to reconcile the Old Testament and the New. "The 

Cerdo. 

God proclaimed by Moses and the Prophets could not 

be the Father of Jesus Christ. For the former is known, but 

the latter unknown : the former is just, merely, the latter is 

good." 14 

Marcion, a native of Pontus, came to Rome during the 
episcopate of Anicetus, and adopted the same general views 
with Cerdo, maturing them, however, into a more 

Marc. on. 

advanced doctrine and discipline. Besides the differ- 
ence between the God of the Old Testament and of the New, 15 
he found it impossible to reconcile Christ coming to Judgment, 
with the Christ of the Gospels ; and therefore was accused of 
making two Christs. As converts from his sect were rebaptized 

*4 S. Hippol. Omn. Hceres. 

J 5 " The just Creator, and the good God." 



i 5 6 History of the Church, 

on coming into the Church, it is probable that he did not use 
the common form of Baptism. He rejected the New Testa- 
ment, except a corrupted copy of the Gospel of S. Luke, and 
certain portions of the Epistles. It is said that towards the end 
of his life he repented of his heresy. 

Apelles, a disciple of Marcion, taught that Christ in descend- 
ing from on high framed a body to Himself out of the four 
elements, of which in ascending again He became 

Apdles. j. . & & 

divested. This he learned from Philumena, a virgin 
ctairvoyante, who lived on invisible food and had many revela- 
tions. About the end of the century, Hermogenes, a 

Hermogenes 

painter of Carthage, taught the eternity of matter : 
an unplastic material, out of which God formed, as perfectly 
as its stubborn nature would allow, the soul and body of 
man. 16 

Tatian, a disciple of Justin Martyr, travelled in the East 
after the death of his master, and originated the stern sect of 
Tatian. the Tatian ites. He regarded marriage as a corruption, 
and denied the possibility of Adam's salvation. 

To these, and many such like, Hippolytus adds the name of 
Monoimus, an Arabian, who taught that " man is the 

Monoimus. . 

all," and "the principle of all." His maxim was: 
" Seek not God, or nature, or things thereunto pertaining; but 
seek thyself from thyself, and say : My God is my mind, my 
thought, my soul, my body. Thus thou shalt find thyself in 
thyself, as the one and the whole." 

It was in the latter half of the third century that Gnostic 
dualism was moulded into its severest form by the hand of 
iv. Mani, an apostate Presbyter it is said, who having 

Mani ' been a Magian, a Christian, and possibly a Buddhist, 
endeavored to fuse all these systems into one. This world is a 
The two battle-ground, a confused struggle of darkness and 
Kingdoms. light . the debatable land, as it were, of two great 
worlds, each having its own Lord, and forever arrayed in irre- 

16 For several of these, see Tertull. De Praescript. 30-33. 



Heresies and Schools. 157 

concilable hostility to one another. 17 Each man is an image 
of that world-wide struggle. In a body which is darkness he 
has a soul which is darkness, but a soul of light, also, striving 
for deliverance. Christ and the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of light 
and the Spirit of ether, attract the good soul unto themselves. 
These notions, adorned with poetical ascriptions to the sun and 
moon and stars, and with a world-system of the most intri- 
cate description, were accompanied with terribly serious views 
of the malignity of nature, and with an austerity Austere 
dark and hard, though not devoid of a certain moral Nature. 
grandeur. The mouth, the hands, the heart, every member and 
every faculty, must be sealed. 18 By silence from all senses 

but good words, by abstinence from all but vegetable Sealed. 
diet, by hands unstained with money, by a virginity absolutely 
unsullied, the flesh is to be purged, and the soul of light lib- 
erated from its loathsome dungeon. To make these maxims 
more effectual, the Manicheans had a discipline and worship 
modelled on that of the Church, but more severe, and in some 
respects more imposing. 19 

There was in this heresy, as in all that have been built upon 
an honest reception of the dualistic principle, an extra- 

Vitality. 

ordinary vitality. Soon after Mam s death, in the last 

quarter of the third century, it began to make its way towards 

x 7 Zoroaster, a contemporaiy of Darius Hystaspes, was the reformer of the 
Magian system. In the form he gave it, Ormuzd, the light-principle and 
fountain-head of good, and Ahriman, the source of darkness and of evil, 
were eternally generated by the infinite and almighty Essence, Zeruane, Aku- 
rene, or absolute Time. On the subject of the Barbarian Philosophies, see 
Diogenes Laertius among the Ancients, and Tenneman's Manual of the His- 
tory of Philosophy (translated by Cousin) among modern works : also Faber 
on Pagan Idolatry. The innumerable points which Christianity has in com- 
mon with Anti- Christian systems, are industriously brought together in a 
spirit hostile to all religion by Dunlap, Vestiges of the Spirit History of Man. 

18 " Signaculum oris, signaculum manuum, signaculum sinus." With 
these high pretensions they mixed secret abominations, almost incredible. 
See Augustin. De Hceres, cap. 46. 

*9 Beausobre, Histoire du Manicheisme ; on which see Mosheim's Criti- 
cisms, Hist. Comment, vol. ii. 



158 History of the Church. 

the West ; and by its ascetic rigor, its high pretensions, and its 
affectation of mystery, made converts not a few in 

A.D. 287. , J J 

Asia Minor, Italy, Sicily and North Africa. Towards 
the end of the same century it was prominent enough to provoke 
persecution, at the hand of the Emperor Diocletian. 20 Perse- 
cuted and crushed at various times, it always managed to re- 
vive ; and in one shape or another continued to exist all through 
the middle ages. 

In the meanwhile there was growing within the bosom of 
the Church a more dangerous enemy, though not more wicked, 
v. than either the Judaic or Gnostic heresies. These 
^ensuous twQ ^ a pp ea ii n g to pseudo-spiritual or pseudo-rational 
proclivities, had assailed the real Humanity or proper Divinity 
of our Lord ; so that the success of either would have involved 
no less than a denial of the essentials of Christian faith, The 
contest with them, however, was during the second century an 
external war. The internal struggle, during the same period, 
was with enemies that appeared on the sensuous side of religion, 
and appealed to the imaginative faith and emotional feelings, 
rather than to the sober reason of the times. 

Symptoms of this, it has been already noticed, had early 

appeared among the Corinthian Christians, in an over-estimate 

of charisms, or spiritual gifts. Coveting sensible 

Sect Spirit. . . . 

signs of the operation of the Spirit, and despising the 
commonplace virtues of temperance, charity, and humility, they 
became mere babes in Christ ; and sect-spirit, or schism, one 
of the inevitable fruits of a carnal mind, 21 became — and to judge 
from S. Clement's Epistle for a long time continued — a charac- 
teristic of their Church. 

What happened among the Corinthians must have shown 
itself at times in other places. Love of the marvellous is nat- 

20 Diocletian's edict (Gies. \ 61, n. 19) seems to have been prompted in 
great measure by hatred of the Persians, whose " detestable customs," he 
feared, might " corrupt the innocency and simplicity of Roman manners.'' 
The ringleaders of the heresy were to be " cast into the flames and burned, 
along with their abominable writings." 2I Gal. v. 19, 20. 



1 

Heresies and Schools, 159 

ural to man. But the extraordinary effusion of " gifts" in the 
Pentecostal age, however necessary it was for a time, Loveoj 
could not but be attended with the risk of ministering Wonders - 
to this dangerous passion ; giving occasion to disorders, which 
the rulers of the Church had to combat with all their might. 

In the beginning of the second century, the same carnal or 
psychical tendency appears under another form. As miracles 
became less frequent, and "gifts" almost disap- cMUast 
peared, prophecy grew more precious to those who Doctrine - 
sought either to stimulate or to build up their faith ; and the 
magnificent imagery of the Old and New Testaments, so elevat- 
ing and inspiring to sober minds, was converted by the un- 
learned and unstable into a sensuous snare. The Millenarian 
theory, a harmless and pleasing speculation to some, became to 
others a sort of intoxication. In its milder form it Millennial 
was an opinion, founded on a literal interpretation of Reign. 
the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse, that the saints risen 
from the dead at the first resurrection should reign with Christ 
a thousand years on earth, in a state of temporal power and 
felicity. Papias, a disciple of S. John and a great collector of 
oral traditions, but a man of slender wit according to Eusebius, 
embellished this opinion.with fanciful additions of a very excep- 
tionable kind. The wicked were to serve the righteous during 
the thousand years of their reign. To support its enormous 
population, the earth was to be endowed with a marvellous 
fecundity. Each vine was to bear a thousand branches, each 
branch a thousand clusters, each cluster a thousand bunches of 
grapes, and each grape was to yield twenty-five measures of 
wine. 22 Pomps and splendors and luxuries were to abound in 

22 See Routh, Reliqu. Sacr. vol. i. The doctrine was held, but probably 
in a more spiritual sense than here described, by Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, 
Melito, and probably by a majority of the Church teachers of the second 
century. The Alexandrine School, which in the third century brought it into 
disrepute, were averse to its sensuous character (which they probably exag- 
gerated), but spiritualized the text of Scripture into a very intangible meaning. 
The millennium was advocated by Justin M., and probably by others, from 
a desire to bring out clearly the doctrine of the Resurrection, in opposition to 



1 60 History of the Church. 

similar proportions. Jerusalem was to be rebuilt, Indeed, 
New the vision of the sacred city, radiant with every im- 

' aginable splendor, so impressed itself upon popular 
imagination, that, as some believed, it was actually seen for a 
space of forty days 23 hovering in the air just over its future site. 
But the Millenarian dream, tolerated for awhile among 
Catholics, and spreading in grosser forms among the heretical 
Religious sects, was only one of innumerable symptoms of a 
great and growing disorder. A worse sign still was 
the flood of religious fictions let loose upon the Church at this 
period. Many of these productions were harmless enough, 
some were even edifying. The Shepherd of Hennas, for ex- 
ample, notwithstanding some questionable phrases, is evidently 
the work of a pious man, who avails himself of the garb of 
fiction without any intention to deceive. 24 We can hardly say 
as much for the Sibylline Books ; 25 a forgery which Justin Martyr 
and early writers generally appealed to, without suspicion or 
misgiving. The Clementines, a romance already mentioned in 
this chapter, came out of a great nest of similar productions. 
Thousands of pious frauds, in short, Prophecies, Histories, 
spurious Epistles, Gospels, Apocalypses, Testaments, mostly of 
Writings. i ieret j ca | origin, 26 but ascribed to Adam, Seth, Abra- 
ham, Moses, the Apostles, the blessed Virgin, and to various 

those " not really Christians," who taught that " at the moment of death the 
soul would be taken right up into heaven." He therefore contended, that 
" not only would there be a resurrection of the dead, but a millennium in 
Jerusalem ... as all the prophets have predicted." Dial, cum Tryphon. 80. 
It has been well remarked, that as belief in the millennium declined, the 
notion of a purgatory took, its place. See note on this subject to Oxf. Trans, 
of Tertullian, p. 120. 

2 3 Tertull. Adv. Marcion. iii. 25. 

2 4 This work, and the Epistle of Barnabas, are placed on very good 
authority in the first century : the argument against their early origin being of 
no great force. See Gieseler, Church Hist. \ 35 (Smith's Am. ed.). See 
also Lee, on Inspiration ; and Wake's Apostol. Fathers. 

2 5 Sibyllina Oracula, etc., Servatii Gallsei, etc., etc. Amstelodami, 1689. 

26 Epiphanius mentions as many as six thousand, of Gnostic authorship. 
Irenaeus speaks of them as countless. 



Heresies and Schools. 1 61 

other worthies, Jewish, Christian, and Heathen, circulated 
through innumerable obscure channels, and ministered to the 
fleshly enthusiasm from which they sprang. 

To perils of this kind must be added a growing fondness for 
the ascetic or encratite 27 virtues. Virginity could not long be 
content with the qualified praise bestowed upon it by TheEn- 
S. Paul. Second marriages were allowed to human 
infirmity, but, in an age that called for extraordinary and heroic 
virtues, infirmity was not apt to be regarded with particular 
favor. The martyr spirit 28 was immoderately applauded : on the 
other hand, denial of the faith at the hour of trial, and even 
attempts at evasion, were likely to be considered by many unpar- 
donable sins. Excesses in this direction did not go, Excesses 
however, entirely unrebuked. The martyrs at Lyons, 
as we have seen, and it may be said the School of S. John in 
general, were distinguished by a noble moderation ; by encraty, 
or temperance, in the truest sense of the word. 29 But as perse- 
cution became more virulent, enthusiasm more lively, and espe- 
cially as the philosopher's cloak, the badge of a proud austerity, 

2 7 The name Encratites (from encrateia, continence, temperance) covers 
a great many sects; and may properly be used as a generic term. 

28 Or rather the act of martyrdom ; for it was a symptom of the sensuous 
tendency, that the word martyr, which applies to all who bear a true Christian 
witness before men, came to be restricted to a small and not in all cases exem- 
plary class. 

2 9 Among the fragments attributed to S. Ignatius, we find the following : 
Virginitatis jugum nemini impone. Periculosa quippe res est, et servatu diffi- 
cilis, quando necessitate fit. Junioribus ante nubere permitte, quam cum 
scortis corrumpantur. But the general sound feeling of the Church is best 
shown in the 50th Apostolic Canon : " If a bishop, a priest, or a deacon, or 
any ecclesiastic abstain from marriage, from flesh, or from wine, not for prac- 
tice in self-denial, but from contempt, forgetting that God made everything 
very gocd, that He made both the male and the female — in fact, even blas- 
pheming the creation : he shall either retract his error, or be deposed and cast 
out of the Church. A layman also shall be treated in like manner." In the 
same way, clerical ascetics were compelled to eat flesh and drink wine once, 
that their abstinence on other occasions might not be attributed to a belief that 
these things were evil in themselves. Ancyra, Can. 14. 



1 62 History of the Church, 

was more and more seen in the Church, the line between proper 
self-discipline and intolerant severity was soon obliterated, or at 
least disregarded, 

Tatian, a converted Philosopher, and for some time an asso- 
ciate of Justin Martyr at Rome, was content during the lifetime 
of the latter to indulge a certain severity to himself, 

Tatianites. 

without making his own practice a rule of obligation 
for others. Afterwards he travelled in the East and fell into 
Gnostic errors. The sects that adopted or developed his notions 
^Tatianites, Severians, from names of their leaders; or, Encra- 

tites, Puritans, from their professions of continence, 

^uritani. 

temperance, and pure religion) spread through all parts 
of the East and West. They condemned matrimony, abstained 
entirely from flesh and wine, and some of them (Hydroparastatse, 
Aguarii or Aquarians) forbade the use of the latter, even in the 
ers ~ Eucharist. The Apotactites, renouncers of the good 
things of this world, Apostolics, imitators of primitive poverty, 
Saccophori, scrip-bearers, are still later varieties of the same 
sensuous spirit, 30 disguised under a thin veil of ostentatious sim- 
plicity or severity of manners. 

Among the idolatrous nations of antiquity, the Phrygians 
were distinguished for those ungovernable transports of sensuous 

vi. enthusiasm which S. Paul justly lays to the charge of 
Montanus. ] iea thenism in general. "Ye know," says he to the 
Corinthians, "that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these 
dumb idols, even as ye were led." This " carrying away " was 
Phrygian known under the name of ecstasy. It could be brought 
Ecstasy. a b ou t by loud shouts, piercing cries, and even by the 
clang of instrumental music. 31 In addition to these, however, 

3° The theoretic notions of some of these sects were less popular than 
their austere manners. Thus dualism was prevalent among them ; the doc- 
trine of Satan's independent power ; and (most offensive of all to the common 
Christian feeling) a belief that Adam was hopelessly damned. 

3 1 " Tympana tenta tonant palmis et cymbala circum 
Concava, raucisonoque minantur cornua cantu, 
Et Phrygio stimulat numero cava tibia mentes;" etc. 

Lucretii, De R. N. ii. 620. 



Heresies and Schools. 1 63 

arts were employed not unlike the " mesmerism " and "spirit- 
ualism" of modern times. Accordingly, at certain seasons, the 
Phrygian population, male and female, especially the latter, 
excited themselves into fits of Corybantic frenzy, under corybanti-. 
the influence of which they exhibited those psychical F *-enzy. 
phenomena which, wherever doctrine and discipline are sub- 
ordinated to passion, are still familiar to the experience of the 
religious world. 

When the Phrygians were converted to Christianity, this 
sensuous spirit seems to have departed for a season. The Gospel 
gave food for the mind, as well as a stimulus to the Phrygian 
affections. 32 It transformed the wild irregularity of Ckristians - 
religious impulse into the decency and order of religious life. 
Society was not only cleansed : it was clothed, as it were, and 
restored to its right mind. 

But about the middle of the second century, symptoms of 
the old malady began to reappear. It was a time undoubtedly 
of general excitability. Miraculous powers still lin- 

° ; The Old 

gered in the Church, or were still fondly cherished in Eva 

. . . returns. 

popular imagination. There was a presentiment of the 
end of the world near at hand. Wild dreams of millennial 
glories were fondly listened to, and generally encouraged. 
Under these circumstances, a little flock of simple Christians 
gathered for devotional exercises in some retired spot — in a 
cemetery, perhaps, or around the tomb of an honored martyr — 
and engaged, it may have been, in fasting or in watching, is 
suddenly startled from its sobriety by one of its members falling 
into a trance. The "ecstasy" is accompanied with wild bab- 

3 2 The Westminster Review (No. cxliii.), in a very narrow-minded article 
on Christian Revivals, accuses the whole early Church of fostering these ex- 
citements. It forgets that Truth was always put foremost by Church teachers 
as the sanctifying power ; and that Truth was proclaimed, not in a popular, 
hortatory way, but in a sober, argumentative style, which appeals to the under- 
standing even more than to the affections. To test the question, let any one 
try to get up a revival (in the reviewer's sense of the word) by reading to 
people the Sermon on the Mount, the Epistles of S. Paul, or any of the homi- 
lies of the early Fathers. 



1 64 History of the Church. 

blings and rapturous demonstrations. The subject of it, while 
in the trance or on awaking, has a dream to tell, a wonderful 
and transporting vision. The thing soon becomes a decided 
epidemic. 33 It speeds from man to man, from congregation to 
Endemic congregation. The Clergy at first can make little of 
mzy ' it. Afterwards, as they perceive the danger, they strive 
to check the contagion, to dispel the delusion. But their efforts 
are all in vain. Enthusiasm degenerates so easily into self-decep- 
tion, and self-deception is so rapidly corrupted into a half- 
unconscious effort to draw in others, that to unveil a lying 
wonder is often the surest way for a time to increase the infatu- 
ation of the multitude who have been deluded by it. 

Montanus, a convert from heathenism, and once, it is said, 
a Priest of Cybele, is commonly cited by the ancients as the 
Montanus. author of the Phrygian frenzy; bringing it about in 
Maximiiia. connection with two prophetesses, Maximilla and Pris- 
Prisciiia. cilia, by artful devices of his own. It is far more 
probable that he was originally a victim of it. Sharing in the 
common delusion, he had the tact and intellectual skill to 
become its interpreter and director. 

The Church, he reasoned, in growing older, ought to grow 

wiser and more sober. Patriarchal times had been the infancy 

of Religion, Tudaism the childhood, Pentecost the 

Theory of & ' J ' 

Develop- glowing and exuberant youth. Each of these periods 
had been inaugurated by signs ; each had been followed 
by a development of doctrine, and by a tightening of the bands 
of discipline and morals. Now, a new and more spiritual era 
The End is manifestly approaching. The world is nodding to 
uear ' its fall. The powers of evil are rallying their forces 

for the great and' decisive battle. The Holy Ghost, the Para- 
clete promised to the Apostles, who has partially manifested 
Himself in the wonders of Pentecostal times, is coming upon 
the Church with a mightier demonstration of spiritual power. 

33 The resemblance of this ecstasy to mesmeric phenomena is pointed out 
by Gieseler, in Tertullian, De Anima, g. See also Munteri, Primord. Eccles. 
Afric. cap. xxii. 



Heresies and Schools. 1 65 

Youth is settling into manhood. With new wonders, then, new 
revelations, new knowledge, there must be a new gird- 

. Greater 

ing up of the loins of the Church mind; a stricter strictness 

. . needed. 

discipline, a more perfect organization, a more com- 
plete subjection of the flesh to the inspiring and energizing 
Spirit. 34 

Hence an adoption at once of all the encratite notions cur- 
rent at that day. Second marriages, and even all marriages not 
solemnized in Church, were regarded as adultery. 

Encratite 

Absolution, especially for mortal sins, was to be at Notions 

adopted. 

least grudgingly accorded. To avoid persecution was 
to fall from the faith. For one Lent they had three, besides other 
fasts, half fasts, and seasons of dry food only. 35 Some abstained 
altogether from flesh and wine. All professed to go far beyond 
the practice of the Church, in sobriety of dress and of manner, 
in condemning amusements, in cultivating a rigid and marked 
austerity in all the relations of daily life. 

In the same way the Millenarian theory, and other notions 
of a stimulating kind, clustered around Montanism by a natural 
and irresistible affinity. Pepuza, a town of Phrygia, where 

34 The views of Montanus come to us through the medium of Tertullian's 
vigorous mind; who in his tract, De Virgin. Veland. I, brings out finely the 
notion of development as opposed to custom or prescription. 

35 See Natalis Alexander, torn, v., Dissertat. iv. ; Kaye's TertulHan ; 
Bingham's Antiquities ; Beveridge, Can. Cod. lib. 3, De Jejun. Quadrages. 
It is probable from Tertull. De Jejun. ii., De Or at. xiv., and from Ireneeus 
Ap.Euseb. v. 24, that the only fast generally obligatoiy (except before baptism 
or ordination) was on Good Friday, Easter Eve, or [Constitut. Apostol. v. 14) 
the whole of Passion-week. The forty days of Lent were observed, however, 
with more or less of strictness : as also the station-days (Wednesday and Fri- 
day) of each week, when abstinence was practised till three o'clock. Among 
the Catholics, however, these observances were "of choice not of command," 
which gave Tertullian occasion, in his sharp way, to twit the Catholics with 
inconsistency, viz., that they observed more than they were willing to enjoin. 
De Jejun. ii. The arguments, by the way, which he puts in the mouths of 
Catholics against the stricter views of the Montanists, are precisely those 
which are employed in modern times against the excessive legality of Roman 
Catholic fasts. 



1 66 History of the Church. 

Maximilla began her prophetic career, was venerated as the site 
of the Heavenly Jerusalem. The prophets kept excite- 
T/ j eor y ment at fever heat by predictions of wars, persecu- 
tions, and of a great and final judgment immediately 
impending ; predictions which signally failed in this instance, 
but which none the less served their purpose for a time. 

As the Clergy quite unanimously rejected the new doctrine, 
it was necessary for Montanus to organize a ministry of his 
Ministry own. 36 This he did consistently with his principle 
ro * ' (that the Catholic Church, namely, was psychical and 
carnal, and therefore imperfect) by ordaining Patriarchs and 
Cenones over the heads of the Bishops ; thus degrading the suc- 
cessors of the Apostles, says S. Jerome, to the third rank in the 
Females Ministry. As his ministry stood on the prophetic rather 
* ' than the sacerdolal basis, he could also consistently with 
his principles admit women to it ; prophetesses 37 being known 
in all the early ages. 

The assertion that Montanus believed himself to be the 

Paraclete, probably arose from the distinction commonly made 

between the Phrygian inspiration, so called, and the 

stasy un- inspiration attributed by the Church to Prophets and 

conscious. 

Apostles. In the latter, neither reason, will, nor any- 
thing pertaining to man's integrity, is abolished or superseded. 
But Montanus professed to be an unconscious organ of the 

3 6 The Montanists also fell back upon the inherent kingly priesthood of 
the private Christian. Tertull. De Exho7'tat. Castitat. vii, : in which he argues 
that, as laymen partake of the priestly office and do priestly acts (et offers, et 
tinguis, et sacerdos es tibi solus), they ought also to come under the strict dis- 
cipline of priestly lives. It maybe observed that this priestly character of the 
congregation enters into all true Liturgies ; but was more apparent in the early 
Church, because the offerings (first fruits, etc.) were more tangible: the dis- 
tinction between the old Law and the new, in this respect, being, according to 
Irenoeus, iv. 18, 2, that what was then done in a servile way, is now done 
freely : quippe cum jam non a servis, sed a liberis offeratur. See Gieseler, 
§53, notes 5, 16. 

37 Thiersch, the Irvingite historian, distinguishes in like manner between 
teaching and prophesying — the one being prohibited to women, the other not. 



Heresies and Schools. 16J 

spirit. 38 The Spirit, throwing him into an ecstasy, into an irra- 
tional, impersonal, irresponsible condition, breathed through 
him as a musician through a flute ; so that the phrase, thus saith 
the Prophet, would be no more proper in his case than to say, 

1 thus says the mouth, or thus writes the pen, or thus plays the 
harp. 

Other absurdities and blasphemies attributed to Montanus, 
are so manifestly taken from vague rumor, or from hostile inter- 

, pretation, that little credit can be given them at the 

1 ' . & Character 

present day. It seems improbable also, that he was of Mon- 
tanus. 
such a simpleton as is sometimes represented. Re- 
spectable powers of mind, great austerity of life, and even prac- 
tical good sense within a certain range, may coexist with absurd- 
ities bordering on insanity ; and the consistency of Montanism 
in itself, as well as the strong and broad hold it gained in large 
portions of the world, seem to bear witness to the intellectual 
ability, and in the popular sense of the word, to the sincerity 
of its author. * 

At all events, Montanism became the popular heresy of the 
day. Its encratic principles recommended it to some; its fervid 
enthusiasm carried away others. Phrygia and Galatia „ 

3 3b Spread o) 

were overrun by it. The light of the golden candle- the New 

3 . ° b Prophecy 

stick of Thyatira was extinguished by it for nearly a 
century. From the East it flew swiftly to the West; and in 
Rome one of the Bishops, towards the end of the cen- 

in the West. 

tury, most probably Victor, was disposed for awhile to 
look favorably upon it, and indeed sent letters of peace to the 
new prophets. In North Africa it took deeper root. Wherever 
it spread, its followers, calling themselves "spiritual," and de- 
spising the Catholics as "carnal," or abhorring them as enemies 
of the Spirit, were distinguished by a severity and simplicity of 
life which disposed many earnest men to look favorably upon 
them. 

3 8 The difference between the orthodox and the Montanist Idea of inspi- 
ration is well treated in Lee, on the Inspiration of H. S. lect. v. •, see also 
Kaye's "Justin M. chap. ix. 



1 68 History of the Church. 

So mighty a movement in the sensuous direction as that 
of the Montanist, Encratite, and even Gnostic sects (for the 
vii. Gnostics became sensuous as soon as they formed into 
aust° n ~ sects), could not fail to arouse the elements of a pow- 
Kkaction. er f u \ reaction. Among the Montanists themselves, 
there arose a party holding views which were afterwards known 
in the Church as Sabellian. 39 These, however, were probably 
men ignorant of theology, who, absorbed in their doctrine of 
the Paraclete, confounded with Him the other Persons of the 
Trinity. 

The Alogi, deniers of the Logos of S. John's Gospel, were 

inclined to doubt the reality of spiritual gifts, and to reject the 

. Apocalypse and Gospel of S. John. 40 In fact, the doc- 

Monarch- trine of the millennium, the mission of the Spirit, and 

tans. 

the mystery of a manifold Divine operation in the hu- 
man heart, had been so vilified by the sensuous trail of heretical 
interpretation, that impatient minds were naturally disgusted. 
A skeptical spirit had also been provoked by over sharp distinc- 
tions between the Persons of the Trinity. The doctrine of 
Subordination was so maintained by some, as to give a handle 

for the charge of Tritheism. To avoid errors on this 

Tritkcism. 

side, many were led to contend for the doctrine of 
the Divine Monarchy, either by denying the Divinity of Jesus 
Christ, or by making Him a mere temporary embodiment or 
manifestation of the Father. Among those who carried this 
reaction to the extreme, Theodotus the Tanner, Theodotus the 
Money-changer, and Artemas or Artemon, were particularly 
prominent. They rejected the Divinity of Christ. From a 
notion of one of them, 41 that Christ was inferior in the priest- 
hood to that mysterious personage, Melchizedek, his followers 
got the name of Melchizedekians. 

39 Tertullian, De Prescript. Hceret. 52, mentions two sects of Montanists, 
those who followed Proculus, and those who followed ^Eschines ; the latter 
maintained that the Father and the Son are one Person. 

4° S. Irenaeus, iii. 11, cited in Gies. \ 48. 

* r Tertullian, De Prescript. Hares. 53. 



Heresies and Schools. 1 69 

Praxeas, coming to Rome from the East, at the time when 
Victor was favoring the new Prophets, by his arguments and 
representations undeceived the Roman Pontiff; but 

■•• _ Praxeas, 

afterwards reasoned himself into a heresy more ruinous Patripas- 

sians. 

and hardly more rational than the one he had exposed. 42 
In explaining the doctrine of the Trinity, possibly with a view 
to cut away the ground from under the Montanist delusion, he 
laid himself open to the charge of Patripas sianism ; contending 
that He who suffered on the cross was not in substance only, 
but in person, one with the Father. 

In this way the philosophizing spirit came back into the 
Church, where it secured a foothold, from which it was not dis- 
lodged for several ages. 43 Indeed, it has never been Rationalist 
dislodged : for the habit of explaining the mysteries T emper. 
of the Gospel having once come in on the side of error, it was 
found necessary to employ it on the side of Truth. 

In Rome. 

The Church of Rome was particularly troubled in this 
way. Noetus, who taught in Asia Minor about the end of the 
second century, held the same view as Praxeas in a more philo- 
sophic shape ; and Epigonus and Cleomenes, his disciples, 
preaching in the imperial city, were more or less favored by 
Zephyrinus and Callistus. How far these Roman Bishops were 
implicated in the heresy, it is hard so say. With the Artemon- 
ites on one side denying the divinity of Christ, and with the 
Patripassians on the other exalting His divinity at the expense 
of His personality, they were certainly in a difficult position. 
It is to their credit that Theodotus and Artemon were promptly 
condemned. 

The same promptitude was shown in the case of Sabellius, 

42 " Praxeas, in Rome, accomplished two works of the devil : he cast out 
prophecy and brought in heresy; he banished the Paraclete and crucified the 
Father." Tertullian, Adv. Praxeam. c. I. Tertullian intimates that Victor 
was silent with regard to the heresy of Praxeas. 

« An anonymous writer in Euseb. v. 28, dwells much on the fondness of 
these heretics for syllogisms, and for Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Galen. They 
were much addicted also to mathematical studies. 

8 



1 70 History of the Church. 

who flourished also in the first half of the third century, and 
expounded the doctrine of the Trinity in a way which 

Sabclli us. J 

has proved as difficult to explain as the original doc- 
trine itself. The sum of his teaching would seem to be this : 
Monad God is a monad, expanded into a triads As man is 
rmd ' one, yet we distinguish in him the body (that is, the 
whole frame corporeal and spiritual), and the soul (which again 
stands for the whole man), and the spirit (of which the same is 
to be said) ; or as the sun is one, yet we distinguish the round 
body and the light and the heat : so God is one, yet the Father, 
the Son, and the Spirit may each express in His own way the 
fulness of the expanded or contracted Godhead. Like all anal- 
ogies of the kind, this is capable of being interpreted in many 
different senses. It may stand for a Trinity of modes, 45 a Trinity 
of emanations, a Trinity of three divine energies. 46 If rigidly 
pressed, it would certainly lead to a denial of the proper person- 
ality of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And this last conse- 
quence Sabellius seems to have accepted. He admitted prosopa, 
persons, but only in the dramatic sense ; characters, to be put 
on or put off, for particular dispensations. In the effort to give 
a rational account of his doctrine on the positive side, he doubt- 
less encountered difficulties, which it was easier to evade by illus- 
trations than to meet and vanquish by intelligible definitions. 

Somewhat later than Sabellius, Beryllus, Bishop of Bostra in 
Arabia, taught that Christ before the Incarnation had no per- 
sonal existence, 47 and that He has no proper divinity 

Beyyllus, 

of His own, but only that of the Father dwelling in 
Him. He denied also the existence of a human soul in Christ, 
the indwelling Deity supplying its place. When con- 
futed by Origen on this latter point, in an Arabian 
Synod holden near the middle of the third century, he also 
abandoned the former error. 

44 S. Athanas. c. Avian. Or. iv. 12, 13; for other statements of his doc- 
trine, see Gieseler, Ch. H. \ 60, n. 10 (Smith's Am. ed.). In the monad there 
was a power of contraction and expansion — systole and ektasis. 

« S. Basil, ep. 210, 214. & Epiphan. Hceres. lxii. 1. 47 Euseb. vi. 33. 



Heresies and Schools. 171 

Somewhat later still, Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch, 
taught a kind of deification of the blameless man _ Pauioj 

i>amosata. 

Jesus, by an impersonal, indwelling Logos. 48 

While many in this way were seduced by a philosophizing 
spirit into open heresy, there were innumerable others who 
speculated to the utmost limit of the rule of faith, and vru. 
perplexed simple souls by subtle distinctions and anal- Sch °and 
ogies. 49 The Logos of S. John was to philosophic Parties - 
minds particularly suggestive. God silent might be distinguished 
from God speaking, or the Word i7iimanent in the Father from 
the Word forthgoing into creation or redemption, in such a 
way as to express any amount of vital truth, or to cover any 
amount of dangerous error. The same may be said of school oj 
the theories of emissions, processions, emanations, ex- ^^^ 
pansions, and the like, by which the relation of the Son to the 
Father was sometimes more clearly than satisfactorily explained. 
Justin Martyr, with his contemporaries Athenagoras and Tatian, 
Theophilus of Antioch, the Alexandrine School, and in the 
West Hippolytus and Tertullian, were among the most active 
in these efforts to give what may be called a philosophic expres- 
sion to the Faith commonly received. On the other Tradition- 
hand, the cautious, traditionary, reverential school, ar ? SchooL 
which lingered to the end of the second century in the person 
of Irenaeus, 50 was wary of the use of scientific terms, and taught 

48 See Book III. ch. 5. 

49 On the subject of the remainder of this chapter there are many modern 
writers of first-rate abiilty; see particularly Burton, Testimonies of the Ante- 
Nicene Fathers, and Hagenbach, History of Doctrines. In the latter are 
concise summaries of the results of German criticism. See also Neander, 
Hist, of Christ. Dogmas. 

s° " If any one shall ask, How was the Son produced from the Father ? — 
we answer, No one knows . . . save alone the Father who begat and the Son 
who was begotten." S. Iren. Adv. Hceres. ii. 28. In the same way he ridi- 
cules those theological obstetricians, who professing in one breath that " His 
generation is indescribable," goon in the next to describe His generation and 
forthgoing, by such analogies as " a word emitted from a thought." " That a 
word is emitted from a thought is what everybody knows. It is therefore no 
great discovery ' they make who talk about emissions, and apply the term to 



172 History of the Church. 

the doctrine of the Trinity in the language of Scripture and 
the Creeds. Of the others also it may be said, that conserva- 
the terms in which they taught maybe distinguished tlvc s ^ irtt - 
from those in which they explained?* the latter being, as a gen- 
eral rule, more open to suspicion. 

The traditionary ground, however, couid not be retained, 
without at all events a thorough examination. Christianity as a 
Faith and Truth, or rather as the Truth, offered a constant chal- 
Knowiedge. j en g e to t ] ie philosophic world. But to maintain that 
challenge she was forced in a measure to adopt the language of 
the Schools, and to answer a multitude of questions which the 
mass of simple believers would never have thought of asking. 
As Origen intimates, the generality of those who called them- 
selves Christians, knowing nothing but Jesus Christ and Him 
crucified, thought they had the whole Logos in the Word made 
flesh. A lower class (the Ebionites or Nazarenes) thought they 
had the whole when they recognized Jesus as the Son of David. 
But the higher man rises in the intellectual scale, the deeper is 
the significance of that question, What think ye of 

Questions _,, . _ _ . .. , 

and Dis- Christ? it was a matter of simple necessity, then, 
that the Truth revealed to the Church should undergo 
a theoretic scrutiny, and that distinctions which readily occurred 
to speculative minds should be at first overlooked, or dimly 
apprehended, and should afterwards, before they were settled, 52 

the only begotten Word of God; likening Him whom they call indescribable 
and unutterable . . . to a word uttered or emitted by man." In other words, 
Irenasus saw the fallacy, common to thinkers of all ages, of imagining that by 
giving new names to things they shed new light upon them. 

5 T Even Irenoeus is accused (by Duncker and others) of hopeless self- 
contradiction, because his constant assertion of the equality of the Father and 
the Son can be coupled with such phrases as " the Father is above all, being 
Himself the head of the Son." 

S 2 Some theories served as a scaffolding, so to speak : e.g., the doctrine of 
subordination, which, before the distinctions of substance, person, and office 
were generally apprehended, enabled philosophic minds to hold to the person- 
ality of the Son. The same'is to be said of the analogies — such as fire light- 
m<gjire, thoughts emitting words, etc., etc. Among the terms finally adopted 



Heresies and Schools. 173 

give rise to variations of expression, or even to mutual distrust 
and misapprehension. 

The Church, in fact, had two works before her. The one 
was to hold the simple Creed. The other was to frame those 
noble instruments, the Latin and Greek tongues, into 

Two Offices 

a fitness for the expression of all that the Creed con- of the 

tains. The latter task devolved upon the Schools ; 
the former upon the Church itself — upon the common sense, 
that is, of believers as a body. To meet both require- F ree dom of 
ments, fixed limits of belief were essential; but within °P inion - 
those limits a reasonable freedom of private speculation. 53 Ac- 
cordingly, amid all the uncertainties arising from illusive analo- 
gies or inadequate definitions, three points at least remained 
fixed in the general consciousness of the Church. God is one : 
Christ is God : Christ is a Person distinct from the 

Fixed 

Person of the Father. Within those limits, which in Limits of 
ordinary teaching were respected even by those who 
in their larger flights of speculation seemed to disregard them, 
no little freedom was allowed. But when those limits were 
transcended by any teacher, however eminent in his position or 
distinguished for his abilities; when, in other words, either the 
proper divinity or the distinct personality of the Son of God 
was denied ; then the Churchly and orthodox instinct made 
itself felt. In the same way, the undeviating direction of belief 
was seen in the fact that the drift of all discussion was to bring 
out more fully and more fairly, against the Gnostics, the real 
and perfect humanity of our Lord. 

In points of secondary interest there was equal activity of 

in the Church were the trias of Theophilus, the trinitas of Tertullian, the 
eternal generation of Origen : the homoousion had a harder struggle, being 
much favored by the Sabellians, and associated more or less with notions of 
division or expansion. See Hagenbach, $$ 40-46. 

53 Bishop Bull, Defensio Fidei Niccence, champions the substantial ortho- 
doxy of the ante-Nicene fathers : Petavius, the learned Jesuit, De Theologicis 
Dogmaticis, impugns it. More recent writers are found in countless numbers 
on either side. 



1 74 History of the Church. 

mind, with more room for philosophizing. The Apologist nat- 
Minor urally undertook to answer the many subtle questions 
with which his accomplished predecessor the Sophist 
had wearied himself to little or no purpose. Hence the origin 
of evil, the eternity of matter, the nature of spirit and of body, 
or of souls, angels, demons ; and, in fact, a multiplicity of prob- 
lems, physical or metaphysical, were answered by guesses more 
or less ingenious, and more or less supported by texts of Script- 
ure interpreted according to the science of the times. 54 At the 
bottom of all this there was a real thirst for knowledge. There 
was something, too, of the old ambition of the Sophists : a de- 
sire to appear to know everything, or perhaps a more creditable 
wish, though not more reasonable, that the Church should be 
shown to have the keys to all kinds of science. From which- 
Sj>irit of ey er cause it came, the passion for opening mysteries 
inquiry. soon passed the bounds of moderation among a large 
class of teachers ; leading in all the great schools to a bias more 
or less heretical, and preparing the way for a long and deadly 
conflict with new shapes of evil. 

But the bringing out of a true Christian gnosis from the rich 

stores of Revelation was none the less a real and necessary task ; 

towards the fulfilment of which each great division of 

Three 

chief the Church was led by a sure instinct to do its own 
part. The more practical West, headed by Rome 

and North Africa, directed its attention mainly to questions of 
Church life ; and in theology was more solicitous to 

The West* 

guard the traditional belief than curiously to explore 
its philosophic meaning. Irenseus, in the spirit of the school 
of Polycarp, appealed to the tradition, 55 or common teaching, 

54 See Mosheim's Commentaries, art. on Origen. 

55 This was a purely practical ground ; and it is easy to see (the principal 
passages are given in Gieseler, §51) that it meant nothing more than the 
common belief, as opposed either to secret traditions or private speculations. 
Hence Rome was entitled to particular weight, as being a centre of universal 
resort, a point of confluence to opinions and traditions from all quarters : — " in 
qua semper ab his qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae est ab apostolis tra- 
ditio." See Book III. chap. iv. of this History. 



Heresies and Schools. 175 

of the Apostolic Churches. Tertullian, in like manner, laid no 
little stress on prescription, and on the rule of faith, "una om- 
nino sola immobilis et irreformabilis. " In controversy, how- 
ever, with Praxeas and the patripassian heresy, he was driven, 
as usual in controversy, into the erection of those hastily formed 
defences which may be called the field-works of theology i 5 * 
theories which crumble of themselves as soon as they have 
served their temporary purpose. Rome, being about 
equally beset by the patripassian and the subordination 
doctrine, kept in the main a steady balance between the two. 
Novatian, the famous schismatic, argued solidly and clearly for 
the orthodox belief. Dionysius, Bishop in the latter half of the 
third century, made the nearest approach, perhaps, of any the- 
ologian during that period, to the exact via media of the Nicene 
definitions. 57 On the whole, however, the West was more dis- 
tinguished for holding the Faith, than for shedding much light 
upon it. In the East it was almost the reverse. Every- 

The East. 

thing tended there towards refined and subtle specula- 
tions. In the two great schools of Antioch in Syria, and Alex- 
andria in Egypt, the one distinguished for its rational, the other 
for its ultra-spiritual bias, numberless questions were opened and 
explored, many positions were taken which proved untenable, 
and the minds of the learned were more or less troubled ; but 
the result, on the whole, was an advance in the direction of a 
lively understanding of the Creed, as not merely " a rule of be- 
lief," but rather an all-pervading essence and spirit of the truth. 
Thus the East and the West, or more precisely Rome, Rome, 

Alexandria, and Antioch, supplied one another's de- Ale dr?a 
ficiencies ; and were the threefold cord of witness, as it Anttoch - 
were, by which every word of the common trust became more 
firmly bound upon the minds and consciences of believers. 

5 6 He is liable to the charge of subordinationism, Tertull. Adv. Prax. 
ii. ; and therefore had to defend himself against the charge of tritheism : Adv. 
Prax. iii. 

57 See Gieseler, $ 66, n. 16. 



1 J 6 History of the Chtirch. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HERESIES HOW MET. COUNCIL. 

Of the vast flood of heresies, partly enumerated and described in 
the preceding chapter, the same general account may be given 
Heresies as of the waters poured forth from the mouth of the 
inddfsin- dragon who persecuted the Woman of the Apoca- 
tegrated. j V p se • the earth opened her mouth and swallowed 
them up. They were not vanquished by wisdom, or by mental 
prowess only ; though logic in every form was vigorously em- 
ployed against them : it was rather that they destroyed them- 
selves ; being providentially divided and subdivided, flowing 
into sect-channels which became ever more narrow and more 
shallow, till, gradually absorbed into heathenism, they so disap- 
peared and came to naught. 

The Gnostic systems especially had in them no principle of 
union, or even of cohesion. Their existence, therefore, is chiefly 
Age of interesting as showing the mental subtlety and activity 
Dialectics. Q f ^ e times, and as in part accounting for that transi- 
tion which took place, from an age of simple faith to one of 
dialectics and polemical discussion. It was gnosticism, in fact, 
which awakened the Church to a consciousness of her vast intel- 
lectual resources. In the presence of this great development 
of heathen wisdom, she felt that she must convince the minds 
as well as win the hearts of men. From the high ground of 
simple dogma she must descend into the arena of philosophic 
disputation. The candle of the Gospel, once lighted, could 
not be hid under a bushel. It must shed its light upon that 
medley of loose notions by which the world was distracted. 



Heresies how Met.- — Councils. \ 77 

By a natural instinct, therefore, and in the main a healthy one, 
the successors of Polycarp and Pothinus departed more and 
more from the quiet ways of these venerable fathers, and threw 
themselves earnestly into the great battles of the day. 

The contest with the Montanist and other sensuous heresies 
had a similar effect : though, in this case, the energies of the 
Church were drawn into a different channel, and ques- weapons 
tions of discipline or order attracted the chief atten- °f Faith - 
tion. When the Phrygian enthusiasm first broke out, the Clergy, 
strong in simple faith, and unaccustomed to the use of dialectic 
weapons, were for a little while content to exorcise the evil. 
They soon found that it was a spirit not so easily allayedc 
Though such men as " Zoticus of Comana and Julian of Apa- 
mea, eminent Bishops of the Church," attempted "to examine 
the babbling spirit, their tongues were bridled," we are told, 
" by a certain Themison and his followers." In the same way, 
" the blessed Sotas in Anchialus wished to cast out the daemon 
from Priscilla, but the hypocrites would not allow him." Some 
who made similar efforts from motives of vainglory Exorcism 
not only failed, but became themselves victims of the /*«*- 

contagious disorder. 1 Others were satisfied to avoid, or simply 
rebuke, the possession, and by this prudent course escaped 
injury themselves, but do not seem to have been able to neutral- 
ize its power. The Phrygian ecstasy, in short, was a phenom- 
enon by which the wisest heads were not a little puzzled. If it 
was, what religious men believed, a demoniacal possession, 2 it 
was manifestly one of that kind which requires something more 
than adjuration to cast it out. 

Under these circumstances, it is highly interesting to ob- 
serve, as the necessity of confuting the new doctrine Reason 
became more apparent, how cautiously the simple a ** ealed t0 - 
faith of the times girded itself, as it were, for the unwelcome 

I Euseb. v. 16, 19. 

2 The alternate elation and dejection of the victims of this delusion are 
described by Euseb. v. 16. Its analogy to phenomena in modern " Spiritual- 
ism" must strike every one who has looked into this remarkable frenzy. 

8* 



i j8 History of the Church. 

task. 3 " For a long time urged," remarks one, "to write a 
discourse against the heresy, I have been somewhat in doubt until 
vow, not indeed for want of argument to confute the false doc- 
Trr7 , trine, but from a fearful apprehension lest I should 

H holesome 

dread of seem to be uttering new precepts, or to be adding some- 

Novelties. 6 r r ' & 

thing to that doctrine of the New Testament, which 
no one who would live according to the Gospel should add to 
or diminish." With many such misgivings, the controversy 
after awhile was fairly inaugurated. Apollinaris of Hierapolis 
in Asia ; Miltiades, a philosopher, Apologist, and historian ; 
Serapion, the eighth Bishop of Antioch ; Apollonius, who wrote 
just forty years after Montanus arose, and many other leading 
minds of the day, met the new prophets in oral disputation and 
in writing ; or fortified the faith of believers with copious proofs 
from the Scriptures, that ecstasy was a mark of diabolic rather 
than of divine inspiration. The question thus opened was one 
of the most difficult in religion, and was most elaborately dis- 
cussed. That the Spirit does not overpower or extin- 

Operation 

of the guish, but elevates and quickens the natural powers of 

Spirit. 

man ; that even under the hand of the Most High, the 
prophet is not a mere instrument or organ, but rather a laborer 
together with God; that, in short, the man inspired is a man in 
full possession of his reason, was argued with great ability from 
the Old Testament and the New ; and in the development of 
this argument a new impulse was given to the critical study of 

the Scriptures. "The false prophet," it was con- 
Prophets tended, 4 "is carried away by a vehement ecstasy 

devoid of shame or apprehension. Let the followers of 
Montanus show, that any in the Old or New Testament were thus 
violently agitated and carried away in spirit : that Agabus, or 
Judas, or Silas, or the daughters of Philip, or Ammias in Phil- 
adelphia, or Quadratus, or others such-like, ever acted in this 
way." Thus, gifts of prophetic power were not declared im- 
possible ; the Church, in fact, generally believed in their con- 

aEuseb. v. 1 6. 
4Euseb, v. 17. 



Heresies how Met. — Councils. 179 

tinuance, or at least in their occasional reappearance : it was 
merely contended that the claim to such gifts should spirits 
be tested by the rules of reason, common-sense, and Trial. 
Holy Scripture. 

But in this general resort to reason and dialectic skill, it was 
not forgotten that the Church is in a special sense the The 

(J It Zt T'Cft CI 

witness to the Truth ; and that it is her office to con- witness. 
fute error by the force of united testimony, as well as by the 
weapons of argument and persuasion. 

Whether Provincial Synods 5 had been held before the rise 
of the Phrygian delusion, the silence of antiquity leaves uncer- 
tain. Gnosticism, perhaps, was too remote from the 
sympathies of believers, or too obviously at variance 
with the Creed, to need any formal or united testimony against 
it. It appealed to philosophic minds, and such minds could 
meet it with philosophic weapons. But Montanism was 
eminently a popular delusion. Its prominent features were but 
slight exaggerations of errors more or less tolerated, or even of 
truths or half-truths commonly received. It had been warmed 
into life in the very bosom of the Church. And as with Mon- 
tanism, so with the rationalistic errors that arose in the contro- 
versy with it. While Christians everywhere acknowl- Their 
edged one supreme and only God, and everywhere Necessit y- 
confessed in this Godhead the Names of three Persons, Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost ; yet with regard to the great mystery of 
the Three in One there had been little controversy, and con- 
sequently little need of subtle definitions. Plausible misstate- 

5 The Apostolic Councils mentioned in the Acts (i. vi. xv.) are a more 
than sufficient precedent for the Synods of later times, inasmuch as the Apos- 
tles, being individually inspired, had less need to confer with one another or 
with the Elders and Brethren. It may be observed of these Councils, that 
(1) there was particular business before each; (2) special prayer for divine 
guidance; (3) business proposed and so far as necessary discussed; (4) a 
decision pronounced, agreed to by all present and put forth in the name of 
all : see Acts i. 16, 24; vi. 5; xv. 22, 23. Venerable Bede supposes that the 
Assembly in Acts, xxi. 18, was also a Council : namely, a Council of the 
Jerusalem Church. 



i8o History of the Church. 

ments, therefore, of the doctrine of the Church, especially if 
found available in the war against Montanus, might easily 
obtain currency among a large number of believers. From an 
instinctive feeling of danger on this side, the Bishops fell back 
upon the Catholic unity of the Church, or, in fact, upon the 
First collegiate type of the ministerial office ; were more 

7hen° rt/ ' frequent than hitherto in conference and correspon- 
rcguiar. dence ; and Synods, at first occasional, afterwards 
more regular, and at length once or twice a year, became in a 
short time the settled order of things. It is not improbable, 
however, that such Councils had been holden from time to 
time, long before they began to make a figure in Church his- 
tory. 6 The primitive Church, as a general rule, took very little 
pains to record its own beginnings. 

In these early Councils the proceedings seem to have been 

of a very simple character. The Brethren came together ; 

namely, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, in the presence 

witness to of the People ; and united their voices and subscrip- 

the Truth. ... . i 

tions in testimony to the Truth, or in condemnation 
of some error. Thus the Martyrs of Lyons, when in prison, 
formed a kind of concilium, and as such bore their witness 
against the heresy of Montanus. So, in a letter of Serapion of 
Antioch, quoted by Eusebius, there are subscriptions of several 
Bishops: for example, "I, Aurelius Cyrenius, a Witness ; " or, 
" ^Elius Publius Julius, Bishop of Debeltum, a colony of Thrace, 
as sure as God lives in Heaven." In another early Synod, 
headed by Apollonius of Corinth, 7 it is mentioned that with the 
signatures many testimonies of the Scriptures were inserted : 
" to show that their zeal was against the wicked sects, not 
against the persons of the sectarians." 

6 One of the earliest on record (after Apostolic times) is said to have been 
holden in Sicily, about a.d. 125, against one Heracleon, a follower of Valen- 
tinus, who taught that sin in the baptized is no longer sin. See Mansi, Con- 
cilia. For others, see Routh's Reliqu. Sacr. 

7 Mansi, Concilia, torn. i. p. 681. The proceedings of the African Coun- 
cil, appended to S. Cyprian's works, will give a clear idea of the way in 
which things were managed in those bodies. 



Heresies how Met. — Councils. 181 

It is probable that the passion of legislation, the besetting 
sin of assemblies of this kind, was little felt before the middle 
or towards the end of the third century. The earliest p ass i ?ifor 
canons are aimed chiefly at two extremes: 8 a proud e & s atlon - 
ascetic spirit encroaching on the one side, and heathenish im- 
moralities and irregularities overflowing on the other. 

However this may be, the same cause that brought the 
Apostles and Brethren together in conference during the first 
century, was found equally operative with the Bishops councils 
and People of the second. The instinct of self-defence A P° stollc - 
is a sufficient reason in both cases. S. Paul, contending against 
the rigid views of the Judaizers in Antioch, was strengthened 
for the battle by the united testimony of the Apostles, Elders, 
and Brethren in Jerusalem. 9 So, in later times, the Doctor or 
Disputer, whose painful duty it was to shut the mouths of 
heretics, had need to be corrected or confirmed, whichever it 
might be, by the deliberate judgment of the great body of his 
Brethren. 

But when, as sometimes happened, Councils themselves 
became parties in controversy, a remedy could be found only in 
waiting for the action of larger, more general, and 

, # Synods 

more impartial Synods. Such was the case with the against 

. Synods. 

long continued strife about the Asiatic Pascha. In 

this case, Italian and other Councils were opposed to Asiatic. 

The same difficulty was experienced in the baptismal contro- 

8 See Apostolic Constitutions and Canons ; also, Canons of early African 
Synods, in Munter's Primordia EccL Afric. 

9 Acts, xv. It is pleasing to notice in the latest Synods of this period 
that the Apostolic precedent was still closely followed ; that Bishops, Presby- 
ters, Deacons, and People were all present. What share the People had in 
the proceedings is not easy to determine. Bishops, at that period, being in 
part chosen by the People, and being from the nature of their office in con- 
stant intercourse with them, were eminently representatives of what may be 
called the lay-sense of the Church. Few cases occurred, therefore, in which 
the sentiments of the Bishops and of the People materially differed. When- 
ever an opposition party existed, it found its main strength among the Clergy. 
See Pusey, Councils of the Church, Oxf. 1857. 



1 82 History of the Church, 

versy. But even in such cases, the habit of looking from 
individual, local, or sectional disputants to the great body of the 
Sobering Brethren, and of awaiting their decision, had undoubt- 
injiuence. ec jjy a sobering and liberalizing effect ; so that differ- 
ences which in any other society would have led to grievous 
schisms, were in the case of Catholics kept in charitable suspen- 
sion, till finally the times were ripe for a settlement satifactory 
to all. In this way it happened, that the great Council of Nice 
had questions up before it which had been mooted for two 
centuries or more. Its decisions were the complement of the 
decisions of many preceding Synods. 

In short, that new aspect of Church life which marks the 

latter half of the second century, was a necessary and wholesome 

adaptation to altered circumstances. The Church, in 

New Tunes, 

New her conflict with the great Serpent, had to be led into 

Strength. 

the wilderness, as it were. Amid new and searching 
trials, she was to become conscious of new strength. 

From lack of appreciation of this fact, the history of primi- 
tive Christianity has been much misunderstood. On the one 
hand, virtues have been attributed to this period with a rhetori- 
cal profusion unwarranted by facts. On the other hand, every 
change or imagined change has been regarded as a corruption. 
But, in sober truth, there is no portion of Church history which 
has not vices enough in it to shock a sensitive mind, or virtues 
enough, if looked for, to command its admiration. The real 
proof of an age is, how it meets its own trials, and accomplishes 
its own work. To judge aright, therefore, of the complex and 

often painful details of the period we are now approach - 
judged b y ing, not only the varied character of the conflict from 

it s irzcvis 

within and from without, but the -infinite importance 
of the interests at stake, and above all, the mingled earnestness 
and frivolity of an age equally profligate and enlightened, must 
be taken into the account and kept charitably in view. 



S. Irenceus and his Disciples. 183 



CHAPTER IX. 

S. IRENCEUS AND HIS DISCIPLES. 

With the exception of two distinguished Africans, Minucius 
Felix the Apologist, and Tertullian the father of Latin theology, 
all the leading champions of the Faith, at the end of Leading 
the second century and the beginning of the third, Cham £ ions - 
were Greek in extraction, language, and intellectual habits. Of 
these, S. Irenaeus was in the West the most prominent example. 
Brought up from early childhood under the eye of Poly- 
carp, Pothinus, Papias, and other disciples of S. John, he was 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of that devout and s . irenceus, 
thoughtful school. But he was an eager inquirer also A ' D ' I20_202 - 
into all the learning of his age. 1 So far as can be judged from 
the few fragments that remain of the Greek original, his style 
is not devoid of elegance and good taste. But the rich and 
expressive imagery of the Scriptures, and the fresh world of 
thought which had come' in with Christianity, no longer admitted 
of strict adherence to classic models. To hold the New wine. 
new wine of the Gospel, new bottles must be made. NewBottles - 
The zest with which the early Fathers studied the sacred writings ; 
their profound and lively faith in the divine Spirit that breathed 
through them ; the loving ingenuity with which they made all 
parts alike profitable for instruction ; their luminous method of 
quoting ; and above all, the extraordinary aptness, abundance, 
and diversity of their citations, were creating a new literature 
quite different from the classic, and requiring to be judged by 
an entirely different rule. Irenaeus was one of the most discreet 

1 Tertull. Advers. Valent. 5. 



.184 History of the Church. 

of the first laborers in this field. His wonderful knowledge of 
the Scriptures, however, was a knowledge of the heart even more 
than of the head ; and his interpretations, if judged by modern 
canons, are liable to the charge of occasional extravagance. 

He had, in fact, the faults as well as merits of his school. 
Seeing Christ in everything, and delighting more in the applica- 
tion than in the critical interpretation of the Scriptures, 

Blemishes. . .... 

he was yet in some points a literalist to a dangerous 
extent. From Papias he inherited the Millenarian doctrine. 
Like Justin, he regarded the sons of God mentioned in Genesis 2 
as angelic beings. He believed the story of the miraculous 
agreement and plenary inspiration of the authors of the Septua- 
gint version, as also the singular notion that the Hebrew Script- 
ures had perished before the days of Ezra, who was 

Traditions. 

miraculously enabled to reproduce them. Fancies of 
this kind he took at second hand, relying upon the authority of 
such men as Papias, or upon the credit of apocryphal produc- 
tions. 3 For his opinion that our Lord was forty years of age at 
the time of His crucifixion, he gives the authority of S. Poly- 
carp and other hearers of S. John • which, as the ancient mind 
remembered numbers chiefly by symbolical association, was 
probably a mere slip of memory. With a few blemishes of this 
kind, all of them more or less traceable to private and apocry- 
phal traditions, the extant works of S. Irenseus 4 are among the 
most valuable of the remains of the first three centuries. 

At what time he removed from Asia Minor to Lyons has not 
been definitely ascertained. It is only known that at the period 
irenams of the Lyonnese persecution he was a distinguished 
Bishop. Presbyter of that Church ; and was intrusted by the 
martyrs then in prison with the letter which they wrote to Eleu- 

2 Gen. vi. 2. 

3 Such as the IVth Book of Esdras ; for the sayings of Papias and other 
seniores apud Irenceum, see Routh, Reliqu. Sacr. vol. i. 

* S. Irensei Episc. Lugdunensis et Martyr. ContJ-a Hccreses, etc. D. R. 
Massuet, Paris, MDCCX. ; Beaven's Life and Times of S. Irenceus ; Tillemont, 
Memoires, etc., torn. iii. ; and the five Books against Heresies, edited by Har- 
vey, Cambr. 1857. 



S. Irenczus and his Disciples. 185 

therus of Rome, for the promotion of peace among the Churches : 
in testimony, that is, against the formidable novelty of 
the heresy of Montanus. After the death of Ponthinus 
he became Bishop, and had a certain primacy over the Gallic 
Churches. 5 Of his labors and influence in that extensive field, 
little is told us beyond the fact that he sent missions to Besan- 
con and Valence ; and became, in general, the teacher and 
enlightener of the Celtic nation. 

His cares, however, were not confined to his own province. 
Connected with Asia Minor by birth and education, and inter- 
ested in the affairs of the -Roman Christians by his Troubles 
mission to the imperial city, he was deeply concerned 
for the growing troubles of Christendom at large, and for those 
of the Roman Church in particular. For the Metropolis at this 
period was not a little distracted by internal feuds. 

x J Blastus 

One Blastus, an Asiatic and a Presbyter, was forming and 

Florinus. 

a party in the Judaizing direction, and made a point 
of celebrating the Pascha on the fourteenth day of the month. 
Whether he ran into formal schism is not quite clear. So also 
one Florinus, a Roman Presbyter, alarmed at the bias that 
existed among speculative minds towards the heresy of two 
principles, maintained the doctrine of the divine monarchy in 
a way which seemed to make God the author of evil. Irenaeus 
argued and remonstrated with both of these. Both were Asiatics 
by birth ; and Florinus, in particular, he could appeal to by 
their joint remembrance of the saintly Polycarp. It shows 
the manifold temptations of the times, and the facility with 
which men glide from one heresy to another, that Florinus, 
when driven from his monarchian position, took refuge in 
the Valentinian theory ; finding the source of all evil in the 
body of man, or in the" material world, and making it to have 
dropped, as it were, from the carelessness of one of the lower 
aeons. 

The pursuit of error into this new labyrinth was felt by 
Irenaeus to be a difficult and perilous undertaking. In propor- 

s Euseb. v. 23. 



1 86 History of the Church. 

tion as charity required him to apply the knife or the caustic to 
the tumid errors that preyed upon the Church, the same charity 
Caution of demanded that it should be done with tenderness to 

"**• the patient, and with a thorough understanding of the 
exact nature of the disease. 6 In argument with heretics, every 
word must be weighed, every logical consequence diligently 
explored. Hence the solemn adjuration, with which his treatise 
on the Ogdoad concludes ; and for calling attention to which we 
have to thank Eusebius, as it lets us not into the mind merely, 
but into the very heart of a high-toned, charitable, and consci- 
His Adjur- entious orthodoxy. "I adjure," says he, "the trans- 
criber of this book by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by 
His glorious appearing when He comes to judge the quick and 
dead, that thou carefully compare and correct thy transcript by 
this very copy, and that thou transcribe this adjuration and set 
it in thy copy." A book against heretics was intended to be a 
chart to save souls from shipwreck; 7 it must be a work, there- 
fore, of the most scrupulous accuracy. 

Once engaged in the study and refutation of Gnostic heresies, 
Irenaeus had many reasons for perseverance in his task. One 
The Mar- Marcus, a disciple of Valentinus, had given a popular 
form to the aeon -system of his master, and was dissem- 
inating it widely among the cities of the Rhone. He was able, 
by some sort of legerdemain, to convert the wine of the Sacra- 
ment into blood. By this and similar arts, he attached to him- 
self a flock of silly women, wealthy and of high rank, whom he 
drugged or otherwise induced into an ecstatic state, similar to 
that witnessed among the Phrygian prophetesses. Religions of 
this kind, combining the popular spiritualism of the day with 
certain elements of the Gospel, were formidable rivals of Chris- 
tianity in the affections of the people. * Those who embraced 
such systems were " spiritual souls " ; those who rejected them 
were '''psychical" or "carnal." But as spiritual souls, from 

6 S. Iren. lib. iii. c. 46. 

7 S. Iren. lib. iv. For an interesting collection of Dirce et Adjurationei 
Libris Additce, see Fabricius, Bibliothec. Grcec. lib. v. cap. i. 



S. Irenceus and his Disciples. 187 

the Valentinian point of view, were incapable of evil or of con- 
tamination by evil ; and as Marcus among other things pretended 
to confer a miraculous gift of invisibility : the descent from 
high-wrought religious enthusiasm to the lowest sensuality was 
rendered particularly easy. Irenaeus saw, in the vile Their V n e 
practices of these Marcosians, a legitimate develop- Practlces 
ment of Gnostic and Valentinian principles. To the study of 
these principles, therefore, and to their exposure and pdschai 
refutation,, he devoted a large portion of his time for Q uestl0n - 
many years. The part he bore in the Paschal controversy was 
highly honorable, and worthy of a disciple of S. Polycarp. 

As already noticed in this chapter, there was a faction at 
Rome, of which one Blastus seems to have been chief in the 
times of Eleutherus, that availed themselves of the 
difference of custom between Rome and Asia Minor 
as a handle of sedition. It is probable that there were many 
Asiatic Christians in the imperial city. For some time, accord- 
ing to the charitable understanding which existed between Poly- 
carp and Anicetus, these seem to have been allowed to follow 
the custom of their own country, ending the fast before the 
Pascha on the fourteenth day of Nisan, instead of waiting for 
the ensuing Sunday. Such differences would be a matter of 
little moment, so long as there existed no other causes of dis- 
sension. But when a seditious spirit became almost a chronic 
evil, and especially when a Judaizing bias began to show itself, 
any peculiarity, however unimportant, could be converted into 
a rallying point for schism, or at least of disaffection. This 
began to be the case with the Easter controversy. The succes- 
sors of Anicetus could not let the question stand where he had 
left it. Soter seems to have found it necessary to insist 

A.D l63. 

upon conformity to the Roman practice, on the part of 
those Asiatics, at least, who were residents in Rome. The ques- 
tion, the meanwhile, was becoming more complicated. 

Becomes 

The Laodicean Christians, not content to break the more 

complex 

fast at the same time with the Jews, had, it would seem, 
adopted the further custom of eating a paschal lamb on the 



1 88 History of the Church. 

occasion. 8 It was under these circumstances that Victor, being 
provoked without doubt by the increase of the factious 

A.D. 196. 

spirit before-mentioned, and appealing to a desire very 
generally entertained, initiated a movement towards uniformity 
of practice in all parts of the world. He wrote to the various 
Churches, and among others to those of Asia Minor. He was 
determined, he declared, that the Church should have nothing in 
common with the Jfews. The movement excited a warm interest 
in all quarters. Many Councils were held, and innumerable 
letters were written. Most of the Churches, especially those of 
Jerusalem, Caesarea, Corinth, Osrhoene, Pontus, Italy, and Gaul, 
decreed that the fast of the Holy Week was not to be broken till 
Sunday, the Day of the Resurrection. On the strength of this 

general consent, Victor wrote to the x\siatics in a more 

Victor b ' 

and the decided tone, threatening them with excommunication 

Asiatics. 

if they held out any longer. But the Quartodecimans, 
as they were called, headed by Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, 
a gray-haired veteran of " slender frame" but mighty spirit, 
whose family had furnished eight prelates to the Church, unani- 
mously refused to depart from their tradition. Victor proceeded 
to carry out his threat. In this, however, his brother Bishops 
generally declined to go with him. On the contrary, they 
rebuked him with much severity ; and exhorted him to return 
to unity and love. 

Irenseus, in particular, while he followed the common custom 

in preference to that in which he had been bred, was urgent in 

his remonstrances against Victor's course ; and wrote 

Irenceus 

Counsels to him and to many other distinguished prelates. From 
his protest on this occasion we learn that there still 
existed no little diversity, both as to the time and as to the man- 
ner of fasting ; some observing one day, some two, some more, 

8 This, however, is hardly more than a plausible conjecture, founded on 
slight intimations in Euseb. iv. 26, and in the Chronic on Paschale. See 
Gieseler, \ 53 (Smith's ed.), n. 34-36. The question whether our Lord ate 
the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day, or by anticipation on the thirteenth, 
is amply discussed in Dr. Jarvis's Inti-oduction, part ii. ch. vii. 



S. Irenczus and his Disciples. 189 

before the Easter Feast, and some again fasting forty hours con- 
secutively. This diversity in small matters, Irenaeus justly adds, 
made the unanimity of the Church in more essential things only 
the more conspicuous. 9 

Irenaeu.3 died, as some say a martyr, when the Church of 
Lyons was a second time devastated, in the persecution ms Death. 
under Severus about the beginning of the third century. 

The witness of Irenaeus on that most interesting subject, the 
spread of Christianity in his day, is extremely vague ; but we 
may gather from it, that not only among the Gauls, church 
but among the Germans on the West of the Rhine, the 
Gospel was successfully preached. His declaration that it was 
still attended with miraculous demonstrations is some- 

Miracles. 

what injured by his mentioning no particular example, 
and by his confining himself to the general statement that such 
things frequently occurred. He is careful to add, however, that 
the daemons when exorcised returned no more ; that many re- 
lieved from them became good Christians ; and that when such 
acts of mercy were performed, it was done simply by prayer, in 
the Name of Jesus, without any juggling ceremonial ; and in no 
case would any sort of gift or recompense be accepted. The 
seriousness with which he dwells on details of this kind is suffi- 
cient proof of his own convictions on the subject, but hardly 
enough to satisfy the demands of modern criticism. 10 It is not 
improbable, however, that the "gifts" lingered longer on the 
outskirts of Christianity in the missionary field, than in regions 
where the Church was fully established. 

The light which Irenaeus shed upon the West during the latter 
part of the second century was transmitted to the first half of 
the third by two of his disciples : Caius, a learned Pres- Disciples of 
byter, and perhaps an Evangelist or Bishop at large, IrencBUS - 
and Hippolytus, still more distinguished as the austere and philo- 
sophic prelate of Porto, near Rome. 

9 For a judicious account of this and similar diversities, see Socrates, 
Eccles. Hist. v. 22 ; also Sozomen, vii. 19. This latter gives quite a list of 
peculiarities. ro This point is more fully considered in Book III. ch. 8. 



1 90 History of the Church, 

Of the former, little remains to warrant the esteem in which 
he was held by the ancients. He wrote against Proculus, a 
Coins, Montanistic teacher, about the time of Zephyrinus, 

DI " 219 ' Bishop of Rome, and was an opponent of the Millen- 
arian doctrine, which he ascribes to the heretic Cerinthus. 11 

Hippolytus, 12 recently brought into prominent notice by the 
discovery of his " Philosophoumena," or "Refutation of all 
Hippolytus, Heresies," is almost the embodiment of an interesting 
a.d. 19 -23 . p| iase - n ear jy Church history ; having been an earnest 
controversialist, the leader of an opposition party in Rome, and 
a rigorous censor of the laxity of his times. As Bishop of the 
Portus Romanus, one of the most important of the six Sees in 
the immediate neighborhood of the city, he was a prominent 
and perhaps leading member of that band of suburban prelates 
called at a later period cardinales episcopi, which took the lead 
in the Roman Presbytery. At all events, he appears as a chief 
Hostility ar »d somewhat dreaded counsellor of the Bishops Zephyr- 
$?*/««» i nus an d Callistus. To both these he was hostile on 
Bishops. theological and disciplinary grounds; accusing them 
of Patripassianism in doctrine, and of serious innovations in the 
conduct of Church affairs. . His testimony on this subject is 
highly interesting, as showing the difficulties that involved the 
leading Bishops in those times. On the one side beset by austere 
theorizers, rigid in their notions of discipline and keen 

Pastors ' ° i 

and in doctrinal disputation, and on the other having to 

Doctors. 

maintain the Faith against plausible and subtle specu- 
lations of the most opposite descriptions, they were obliged to 
be somewhat slow and even vacillating in their judgment of the 
movements of the day. As a general rule, the Bishops of the 
great Sees, and more especially of Rome, were men of practical 
and administrative talent, rather than of learning and theological 
acumen. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that they were 
not always on good terms with their more scholarly advisers ; 

11 Euseb. ii. 25 ; iii. 28-31. 
. I2 S. Hippolyti, Episc. et Mart. Refutat. Omn. Hcererium, lib. ix.; Bun- 
sen's Hippolytus. 



S. Irenceus and his Disciples. 1 9 1 

and that the tendency to philosophize on the one side, and per- 
haps to temporize on the other, should break out occasionally 
into mutual distrust. 

As to Hippolytus, he undoubtedly theorized as far as safety 
would permit. In his dread of the patripassian error, he taught 
a kind of subordination of the Son to the Father, which 

His 

gave a handle for the charge of Ditheism, or a doctrine Position 

1 • i extreme. 

of two Gods. 13 The charitable construction, which 
enables us to acquit him of actual heresy in this direction, may 
be applied with equal force, perhaps, to the alleged opposite 
leaning of the party of Callistus. 14 The same reasoning applies 
to his invectives on the relaxation of discipline in the Church. 
His own notions on the subject were austere and impracticable, 
suited only to a community of philosophers or monks. His 
denunciations, therefore, are valuable, as showing the com- 
plexity of the questions which the Clergy had to solve, and the 
bitterness of feeling that necessarily arose, rather than for any 
very clear light they shed upon the character or principles of 
the dominant influence in Rome. 

The peculiar severity of tone, which induces some to suspect 
him of a leaning towards the Montanists, or to rank him with 
the Novatians of the latter half of the century, he had His 

in common with the philosophic class to which he Seventy. 
belonged. Like his master Irenseus, he favored Chiliasm. Like 
most of the learned teachers of his times, he made Gnostic views 
a matter of particular attention, and traced all errors to one or 
other of the heathen philosophic schools. 

*3 His Veritatis Doctrina, however, a fine philosophic version of the 
Creed, addressed to Greeks, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and all mankind, is enough 
to vindicate his substantial orthodoxy. In it, the distinction between things 
generated and created is sharply drawn. So also the divinity of the Son. 
Refutat. Omn. Hczres. lib. x. 32, et ss. 

x 4 The doctrine of Callistus, as stated by Hippolytus, is undoubtedly 
heretical ; being the same substantially as that ascribed to Noetus. Besides 
which, the hei-etical sect of the Callistians seem to have got their name from 
him. 



192 History of the Church. 

It is said that before his death he repented of the violence 
of his conduct, and exhorted his followers to strive for 

His Death. _ 

peace. He suffered martyrdom, probably in Rome, 
during the persecution of Maximin the Thracian. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 



In the constitution of the Episcopate of Alexandria there 

seems to have been some departure from the general practice of 

the Church, the exact nature of which, however, it is 

Episcopate. . 

not easy to determine. I he amplest account of the 
peculiarity is given by Eutychius, a Patriarch of Alexandria in 
the tenth century. 1 

" S. Mark," it is said, "along with Ananias ordained 
twelve Presbyters, to remain with the Patriarch ; so that, when 

the chair should become vacant, they might elect one 

A ccording ^ ° 

toEuty- out of the twelve, on whose head the other eleven 

chius. 

should lay their hands, give him benediction, and con- 
stitute him Patriarch. This continued at Alexandria till the 
time of the Patriarch Alexander (a.d. 325) . . . who forbade 
the Presbyters in future to ordain their Patriarch, but decreed 
that on a vacancy of the See the neighboring Bishops should 
convene for the purpose of filling it with a proper Patriarch, 
whether elected fro?n those Presbyters, or from any others. ' ' 
Eutychius adds, that during the time of the first ten Patriarchs, 
there were no Bishops in the rest of Egyyt ; Demetrius, the 
eleventh, having been the first to consecrate them. 

S. Jerome gives substantially the same account ; except that 
According ne makes no mention of ordination by the eleven, and 
zo s.jerome. ga y S ^ c h an g e f cus tom occurred in the times of 

Heraclas and Dionysius. 2 

1 See Neale's Holy East. Ch. Book I. \ I. 2 Epistol ad. Evangelum. 



The Alexandrine School. 193 

In the silence of contemporaries on the subject, 3 and from 
the vagueness as well as lateness of the testimony given, oneEx- 
there is room for the conjecture that Egypt, instead £ lanatlon - 
of being divided among several local sees, was governed for 
awhile by a college of twelve chief pastors residing in Alexan- 
dria; the Bishop of that See being at their head. Nothing 
could be more natural than such an arrangement, at the first 
planting of the Church. In later times, however, as the Gospel 
extended into the Provinces, it would be found inconvenient, 
and each important city would desire a resident Bishop of its 
own. This is the most natural inference, if the language of 
Eutychius be taken to the letter. For the Presbyters mentioned 
by him were manifestly Presbyters who had power to ordain ; 
but Presbyters 4 with power to ordain are the same as Bishops, 
in the restricted sense of the word. As S. Jerome says, in con- 
nection with this subject, " What does a Bishop do, except ordi- 
nation, which a Presbyter cannot do ? " 

This is said, on the supposition that the eleven both elected 

and ordained their Patriarch. But as that point is not certain, 

resting only on the testimony of a writer manifestly 

inaccurate in language and living six centuries after Explana- 
tion. 
the period of which he speaks, the peculiarity of the 

Church of Alexandria may have been merely that of electing a 

Bishop out of a close corporation of twelve Presbyters, instead 

of choosing from the Church at large, as was customary in other 

places. 

However that may be, the See of Alexandria was undoubtedly 

a chief centre of Church life, its influence extending by the end 

3 It is fatal to the theory of any radical, or even marked, change in the 
Church government of Egypt, that the period in question is covered by the 
names of Origen, Meletius, and others, who belonged to an opposition party, 
and who certainly would have made themselves heard, if the ruling party 
had been guilty of any innovations. 

4 It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that the term Presbyter, like 
the term Priest, or Sacerdos, was often used as a name for the Ministry in 
general, and therefore might be applied to any order. 2 John, 1 ; 3 John, I ; 
1 Peter, v. I. 

9 



194 History of the Church. 

of the third century over a hundred dioceses in Egypt, Penta- 
Demetrius polis, and Libya. Till the time of Demetrius, however, 

Bishop, i» l • i • i -it 

a.d. 189. little is known of its history beyond a list of names. 
He, it is said, was both a layman and a married man at the time 
of his election, and totally illiterate. But, addressing himself 
zealously to the duties of his office, he became by diligent 
study one of the most learned prelates of his time ; and it was 
during his episcopate that Alexandria, by the brilliant efforts of 
its philosophic teachers on the one hand, and by the sterling 
orthodoxy of its clergy on the other, took a decided lead in 
that work of intellectual progress for which, as we have seen, the 
period had begun to be distinguished. 

Considering the character and position of the city, it could 
hardly have been otherwise. To Greek and Hebrew alike, 5 
Centre of Alexandria was the seat of philosophy and learning. 
Learning. j t wag ^g congenial home of Gnostic and Platonic 
dreams ; the centre of a liberal and spiritual, though mystic, 
Judaism. Heathen myths and Scripture verities, by a process 
of allegorizing fanciful in some respects, but not without a tinc- 
ture of earnest religious feeling, had been blended, as it were, 
in a richly colored though bewildering and deceptive light. In 
the first century, Philo the learned Jew had flourished there. 
Towards the end of the second century, Ammonius Saccas, who 
judaic na d been a Christian and was more or less imbued with 
"piat^nk elements of Christian truth, opened a fresh vein of 
Wisdom, thought in the new Platonic system. 6 Plotinus and 
others followed in his steps. The school thus founded claimed 

5 The Alexandrine Jews figure largely in that course of Providential 
preparation, so wonderfully ordered, by which the wall of separation between 
Jews and Gentiles was secretly undermined, and the way was opened for the 
spread of the Gospel. The translation of the Old Testament into Greek was 
one part of their work : the development of a liberal interpretation was another. 
In this latter point Philo Judseus, born about twenty years before the Christian 
era, was a valuable instrument. His works are accessible to the English 
reader in Bonn's Eccl. Library. 

6 Ritter's History of Ancient Philosophy, Book XIII. ; Euseb. vi. 19. 



The Alexandrine School. 195 

to be a Religion as well as a Philosophy. 7 It pretended to 
intuitions of truth, or immediate revelations. It admitted a 
place for Christ as among the greatest of teachers andtheurgists. 
On the same principle it did not reject, but spiritualized and so 
labored to justify, the fables of the Greek polytheism. It even 
endeavored to find a reasonable and religious basis for the 
generally reprobated but much practised arts of magic and divin- 
ation. 

It was amid such influences that the Catechetical School, 8 
founded by S. Mark and carried forward, it is said, by the labors 
of Athenagorus, 9 attained its first celebrity under the Pant&nus, 
auspices of the famous "Sicilian bee," the eclectic A,D ' I3 °' 
philosopher Pantsenus. Of him, however, little but his distin- 
guished reputation has descended to our times. A deputation 
from some part of India having come to Demetrius, desir- 
ing him to send thither a teacher of Christian truth, Mission to 
Pantsenus was deemed worthy of the mission, and i*dia. 
departed to that country. There he found some traces of the 
labors of S. Bartholomew the Apostle, with a Hebrew copy of 
the Gospel of S. Matthew. He afterwards returned to the 
School at Alexandria, in the conduct of which he was succeeded 
by his better known disciple, S. Clement. 

To realize the position of this latter, it is necessary to remem- 
ber that the Catechetical School was an institution intended 
rather for those without, than for those within the catechet- 
Church. In its simplest form, S. Paul dwelling at icalSch °° l - 
Rome in his own hired house, receiving all who came, preaching 
the Kingdom of God, and speaking of things concerning the 
Lord Jesus Christ — or the same Apostle disputing daily at 
Ephesus in the school of one Tyrannus — presents, on the whole, 

7 See chap. vi. of this Book. 

8 Guericke, De Schola, qnce olim Ale xandr. floruit, Catechetica. 

9 Originally an Athenian philosopher. He wrote an Intercession for the 
Christians about a.d. 177, in which he defends them against the charges of 
atheism, cannibalism, and incest. Like most of the philosophic theologians, his 
notions on many subjects were harsh and impracticable. 



19 6 History of the CJmrch. 

a just conception of it. The same may be said of Justin Martyr, 
who, when he lived at Rome, was always to be found in his own 
quarters at the Baths of Timotheus, ready to give instruction. 
In the form it subsequently assumed, we see less of the Gospel 
preacher, more of the philosophic talker. A Christian man of 
science, whether of the Laity or Clergy, held himself in readiness 
t j discourse upon all subjects connected with religion : to remove 
L a y difficulties, to answer questions, to resolve doubts, to 

lHg ' prepare the heathen mind, in short, for an intelligent 
reception of the Gospel. While the School, therefore, dealt 
with high and sacred themes, it had all the range and freedom 
peculiar to lay-teaching. Its analogy, in modern times, is to be 
found in the relation of the press to the pulpit ; or rather, it 
may be said, of the University to the Church. 

Clement, a convert from heathenism and a man of encyclo- 
paedic learning, who had travelled in all countries, studied in 
clement, a U schools, and profited by all systems — an eclectic 
189-202. "bee" that sucked honey from every flower, but 
found the substance of their sweets in " prophetic and apostolic 
meadows" — was particularly well fitted by nature and edu- 
Hi s cation to carry out this idea. His mission was to 

Mission. ^ re fi ne( j an( j cultivated heathen. Not merely to 
turn them from idolatry by Hortatory Appeals ; but to conduct 
them affably and pleasantly, with moral discourses on the way, 
to the school of divine knowledge ; to hang that school, as it 
were, with embroidered Tapestry-work : 1C to array Religion in 
the many-colored robes of a literature and philosophy intellec- 
tually attractive — seems to have been the object he had constantly 
in view. Hence, though belonging to the priesthood, he mixed 
up philosophy and religion to an extent that exposed him to 

10 Such seems to be the idea of his three works, which " rise each upon the 
other in a series or sequence," — in imitation, perhaps, of the three degrees 
of knowledge required by the ancient mystagogues, the Logos Protrepticos, the 
Pcedagogos, the Stromata. In this paragraph I have rather adapted, than 
translated, some of the innumerable types and tropes, with which in the open- 
ing of the Stromata, the cause of eclectic philosophy is defended. 



The Alexandrine School. 197 

much blame. His tabernacle of Christian gnosis was too lav- 
ishly adorned with "the spoils of the Egyptians." The En _ 
Israel, indeed, might be the enclosed garden of the uZ'fchli 
Lord, a sacred repository of choice and healing plants. Garden. 
But the great Gentile world was his unenclosed garden. The same 
Hand created both. The same Spirit breathed in both. The same 
Divine Word had shed His light on both. Yet, as flowers and 
weeds, grapes and thorns, figs and thistles, had all grown promis- 
cuously in the Gentile soil, the barren or pernicious concealing 
the fruitful tree from the mere casual observer : it followed that 
the genuine Christian Gnostic must be above all The True 
things an Eclectic. His spiritual taste must be edu- 
cated. He must be accustomed to prove all things, that he may 
hold fast to what is good. Clement, in short, saw no incompat- 
ibility between profane and sacred learning. The former was, 
in some sense, the handmaid of the latter — perhaps a necessary 
handmaid. For, as Sarah the mistress was barren, till she had 
borne a son to Abraham by Hagar, her maid; so the Church, 
relying on simple faith and abhorring the profane christan 
touch of dialectic, philosophic, and scientific culture, 
might find herself in the position of one who expects to gather 
grapes, without being at the pains to cultivate the vine." 

With views so perilously in advance of the religious senti- 
ment of his times, and which anticipated the broadest modern 
schemes of liberal education, it is not to be wondered element's 
at that Clement's orthodoxy has been, and is still, an 
open question. That he sometimes used inaccurate expressions 
with regard to the essentials of the Faith, and that in less im- 
portant points he advanced many erroneous opinions, is beyond 
all doubt. 12 On the breaking out of the Severian persecution he 

11 Even the physical sciences are included in Clement's curriculum. 
Stromat. lib. i. 

12 Bishop Bull defends his substantial orthodoxy. Among the notions 
imputed to him by Photius, who had a copy (pei-haps a corrupted one) of his 
Hypotyposes, now lost, was the theory of several successive creations before 
Adam. Was this an anticipation of modern geology ? See Tillemont, torn. 



198 History of the Church. 

retired before the storm, and defended his course in this par- 
ticular with arguments full of good sense, but somewhat too 
His elaborate and ingenious. He has been much censured 

for his advocacy of the pseudos, a species of " reserve" 
or " white lie," in dealing with unbelievers. As a general rule, 
those who advocate reserve are the least given to it in practice. 
Clement was hardly an exception to this rule. The "lies" he 
had in view were that "economy" which dispenses meats and 
medicines in due measure and due season, and not any such de- 
ception as the word taken to the letter might imply. 13 In his 
system, however, human wisdom undoubtedly had too high a 
place ; and his pretensions to a gnosis or secret knowledge, un- 
attainable to the vulgar, savored too much of the arrogance of 
the Gnostic and new Platonic schools. 

He was succeeded by Origen, 14 the Adamantine, the man of 
iron soul, whose mind was, as the name Chalkenteros 1 * suggests, a 
Origen, great thought-factory — a marvel of rapid, easy, steady, 
a.d. 203. an( j v ig 0rous operation. He dictated to seven amanu- 
enses, and is said to have been the author of at least six thou- 
sand different works. He wrote more, says S. Jerome, than 
another man could read. As the demand for thoughtful tracts 
must have been in some proportion to the supply, there could 
be no stronger testimony to the wonderful intellectual activity 

iii. art. 5. For an exact account of his teaching, see Kaye's Clement of 
Alexandria (John, Bishop of Lincoln), and Clementis Alex. Op. omnia Gr. 
et Lat. ed. Potter, Oxon. 17 15. 

x 3 See Blunt's Right Use of the Early Fathers. While Clement's mean- 
ing may be defended, his language, it must be confessed, might be made to 
countenance almost any amount of fraud undertaken with a pious end in 
view. The same is to be said of some of the expressions of Origen. See 
notes to Gieseler, \ 63. 

J 4 On the subject of Origen, Eusebius is very full. Eccles. Hist. See 
also Huet's Origeniana, and various other disquisitions, appended or prefixed 
to De la Rue's edition; Origen, Op. Omn., etc., Paris. 1733. For a list of 
works on Origen, see Fabricii, Bibliothec. Grcec. torn. vii. and Walch, Biblio- 
thee. Patristic, p. 273. 

J 5 S. Jerome so calls him. 



The Alexandrine School. 199 

of the times. In his life he was a strict ascetic. Going bare- 
foot at all seasons, owning but one coat, a vegetarian in his diet, 
and content with such sleep as he could obtain on a bare floor, 
he devoted his days to teaching, his nights to prayer and study 
of the Scriptures. He was but eighteen years of age 
when he began this course. The persecution, before tion and 

. . Heroism. 

which Clement retired, gave him occupation of a still 
more honorable kind. Many of his disciples were among the 
Martyrs and Confessors. He visited them in prison, he stood 
by them before the tribunal, he comforted and encouraged them 
in the final conflict. It was unfortunate for him, and for his 
subsequent good name, that with such unquestionable zeal and 
self-devotion there was something of the allov of a 

. J ' Self-will. 

presumptuous hardihood. Though still a mere youth 
when appointed by Demetrius to the Catechetical School, he 
seems to have taken counsel only of his own heart. Acting, 
for example, on what he afterwards acknowledged to be a hasty 
interpretation of the language of our Lord with regard to eu- 
nuchs, 16 he prepared many sorrows for himself, many scandals 
and disturbances for the Church at large. He urged, by way 
of apology for this act, that there were several females in his 
school — which exposed him to scandal and temptation. Both 
the act and the excuse show an undue influence of the encratite 
spirit so prevalent at that time. 

In such matters, Origen is the less excusable, in that he was 
a child of many prayers, and of a careful Christian nurture. 
One of the tenderest images of all antiquity is that of His Father 
his father, Leonides, rebuking the precocity of his Leonides - 
gifted boy, but stealing to his couch when he slept, that he 

16 Matt. xix. 12. By his ill-advised act, Origen, according to a wise 
canon of the Church (see Apostol. Canons, 21-24), disqualified himself for 
entering Holy Orders. It may be noticed here that bodily blemishes were 
not made a bar to Holy Orders (Apostolic Canons, 77) unless they were self- 
inflicted. A deaf or blind man, however, could not be made Bishop — " not 
as if he was by this made unclean, but lest it be an impediment to him in the 
duties of his office." 



200 History of the Church, 

might kiss a breast so manifestly a temple of the Holy Ghost. 
This excellent father was one of the first victims of the Severian 
persecution. Origen would gladly have shared his 
martyrdom ; but his mother kept him at home by hid- 
ing away his clothes. He managed, nevertheless, to encourage 
his father by an admirable epistle ; in which, referring to his 
mother and seven children about to be left destitute, 17 he said : 
" Father, be firm in the Faith, and be not troubled on account 
of us." 

One of the beneficial influences of that mixture of religious 

and secular teaching which characterized the Alexandrine School, 

remarkably appeared in the case of Basilides, one of 

and other Ori^en's disciples, but still a heathen and an officer in 

Martyrs. to 1 > 

the army. It fell to him, in the course of the perse- 
cution, to conduct the famous Potamisena to her execution. 
This noble virgin, equally celebrated for her beauty and her 
virtue, when all other appeals had failed to daunt her courage, 
was threatened with the horrible fate of being given over to the 
will of the brutal gladiators. To escape this outrage, she uttered 
some word deemed sacrilegious by the crowd, which brought 

upon her the penalty of immediate death. Basilides 

Basilides x L J 

led her away, but showed his sympathy by protecting 
her from the insults and abuses of the mob. She promised him 
her prayers, as a reward for his humanity. Not long after her 
martyrdom, Basilides declared himself a Christian ; and relating 
to the Brethren how Potamisena had appeared to him three suc- 
cessive nights, in a dream, and had placed a crown upon his 
head, he was duly received, baptized, and shortly after enrolled 
in the army of the Martyrs. With Potamisena suffered her 

J 7 Origen was left in straitened circumstances ; but in later life he found 
a fast friend in Ambrosius, a wealthy layman, whom he reclaimed from the 
Valentinian heresy, who not only supplied his moderate wants in the way of 
meat and clothing, but furnished him the means of carrying on his stupendous 
intellectual labors. During the persecution under Maximin (a.d. 235), he 
had occasion to exhort this noble friend to martyrdom : a wife and children, 
and large property, being, as he urged, only a greater reason for courage 
and steadfastness in the faith. 



The Alexandrine School. 201 

mother Macella. The baptism of fire that they received was 
imparted also to Herais, a female catechumen, another of Ori- 
gen's disciples. The number of young women of high charac- 
ter who appreciated the teachings of this great master/ 8 and 
many of whom were employed as copyists of his works, is cred- 
itable to the state of Christian society at that period. 

Of Origen's innumerable intellectual labors it is sufficient to 
say here that they were in the direction pointed out by his able 
predecessors. A disciple of Pantaenus and of Clement, . , 

Origen s 

a willing hearer of Ammonius Saccas, and full of a/tand 

Labors. 

genius, industry, and hardy independence, he could 
not fail to exert a prodigious influence upon the young mind of 
his times. His fame was known in the palace, and he corre- 
sponded, it is said, with the Emperor Philip. Mammaea, the 
mother of Alexander Severus, received lessons in Christianity 
from his mouth. An Arabian prince paid him a special visit 
for the same purpose. He was an object of admiration, also, to 
the heathen philosophers. 19 On one occasion, at Rome, when 
he chanced to enter a hall where Plotinus the celebrated Neo- 
Platonist was lecturing, the latter rose from his seat and declined 
proceeding before one who, as he declared, knew more than he 
could tell him. 20 But his most enduring fame, and, as Gregory 
Thaumaturgus 21 says, his "greatest gift," was in the rr . . 

J ° ° His Renown 

sphere of " an interpreter of the word of God." He 
searched with indefatigable zeal for the mystical, the moral, and 
the historic sense of Scripture j 22 and in each of these depart- 

18 The lectures of Plotinus also, the famous Neo-Platonis' were attended 
by many female disciples. See Porphyr. Vita. Plotin. 
J 9 Porphyry's eulogy is quoted by Eusebius, vi. 19. 

20 Porphyr. Vit. Plotin. This, however, may have been another Origen, 
a heathen philosopher, who was also a disciple of Ammonius. 

21 Who composed an Oratio Panegyric a in Origenem, highly esteemed 
for its glowing eloquence. 

22 Practically only two senses ; for the mystic sense was considered un- 
attainable or only partially attainable to man, in the body : " even the sim- 
plest believers know that there are (profound meanings under the letter of 
Scripture), but what they are men of modesty and- good sense confess them- 

9* 



202 History of the Church. 

ments was sometimes hurried by his ardor into dangerous ex- 
tremes. By carefully distinguishing, however, the three senses 
from one another, he did as much for the cause of grammatical 
interpretation as for the allegorizing method so popular among 
the ancients. Enough remains of his labors to justify to poster- 
The ity the esteem in which he was held. But his Hexa- 

exap a. pj a ^ a polyglott Bible in six columns, containing the 
original text in Hebrew and Greek characters, with the four 
Greek versions of the Seventy, of Aquila, of Symmachus, and 
of Theodotion, is, with the exception of a few fragments, unfor- 
tunately lost. 

Demetrius, the earnest and sober-minded Pastor of the 
Alexandrine Church, during whose episcopate this brilliant con- 
stellation of teachers appeared in the theological 
and heavens, must have watched its rise and culmination 

Demetrius. 

with no little interest, and, perhaps, not without a 
shade of serious misgiving. However that may be, he for a 
long time acted with a liberality seldom witnessed in such cir- 
cumstances among men of his character and position. Why he 

selves ignorant." Origen cites particularly the story of Lot and his daughters, 
Abraham and his two wives, the two sisters that Jacob married, the arrange- 
ment of the tabernacle, etc., etc. ; in which he says, every one can see some 
type or figure, though he who imagines he has found the absolute and fixed 
meaning is apt to be mistaken. The three senses were in reference to the 
common notion of the threefoldness of man: the body (literal or historic 
sense) — the soul (moral sense) — the spirit (mystic sense). In some parts of 
SS. only one, in some two, and in some the three senses may be found. The 
most objectionable part of Origen's interpretation was, that, in his eagerness 
to show the necessity of the allegorizing process, he made many difficulties in 
Scripture which do not exist. The cases in which the mystic interpretation is 
allowable, according to Origen, are : ( I ) the various details of the cere- 
monial laws ; (2) all that is said about Jerusalem, Egypt, Babylon, Tyre, and 
other type-cities or type-names ; (3) when the letter of Scripture is seemingly 
trivial, self-contradictory, or (like the Song of Solomon) capable of perver- 
sion and misinterpretation. On the perspective character of the language of 
the Old Testament, see Lee, on Inspiration, etc., Lect. iii. See also Peter 
Daniel Huet's Origeniana. Gieseler, Ch. Hist. \ 63, gives Origen full credit 
for his services to grammatical interpretation. So also Neander, Ch. Hist. \ v. 



The Alexandrine School, 203 

at length departed from this course has been variously con- 
jectured. Some ascribe it to envy of Origen's growing reputa- 
tion. 23 Such motives are easy to impute, and to some minds 
easy to believe. They are difficult to prove, however, even 
with the advantage of personal or contemporaneous knowledge. 
Without entering, therefore, into questions of this kind, it is 
enough to notice the fact, that Origen's latter days were clouded 
by a bitter contention with his Bishop, and with the Church of 
his native city. 

The quarrel began during a visit of Origen to Palestine, 
where, on the invitation of Alexander of Jerusalem, one of his 
disciples, and Theoctistus of Csesarea, he preached in Beginning 
the churches of those prelates. Demetrius rem on- Q^rrli 
strated against this, and Origen was summoned home. A-D# 2IS < 
About thirteen years after, being invited into Greece, to assist 
in the refutation of certain heresies which had there obtained a 
footing, he procured letters commendatory from Demetrius and 
repaired to that country. Thence, under the sanction of the 
same letters, he passed into Palestine, where, without consulta- 
tion or further communication with his Bishop, he was ordained 
to the priesthood. Demetrius objected to this as a violation of 
the canons. An angry correspondence followed. The Cate- 
chist was refractory ; the Bishop uncompromising. The former 
was defended by the clergy of Palestine. The latter, supported 
by two councils of the Alexandrine Church, issued a sentence 
of deposition and excommunication against Origen, 

Origen 

on the ground of his false teachings and violations of Condemned, 

• • t 1 T» y~<l 1 A.D.23I, 232. 

the canons ; an act in which the Roman Church con- 
curred, though Palestine, Arabia, Phenicia, and Achaia strenu- 
ously opposed it. Undeterred by this, Origen continued his 
stupendous labors in Csesarea, in Greece, in Arabia, where he 

2 3 Eusebius, in his extreme partiality for Origen and the Palestine Bishops, 
is manifestly harsh in his judgment of Demetrius. Many modern writers, 
though aware that such acts and opinions as those of Origen would have con- 
demned him in the eyes of any Christian body that ever existed, are equally 
severe upon the action of the Alexandrine Church. 



204 History of the Church. 

confuted and converted the heretic Beryllus, and in other 
places, with great acceptance and great usefulness to his numer- 
ous admirers. Afterwards, under the episcopate of Dionysius, 
the sentence against him seems to have been remitted, or at 
least forgotten. 24 He was finally a confessor in the Decian per- 
secution, 25 and died shortly after in the city of Tyre. 

Apart from the personalities involved in this controversy, 

there is much meaning in the course pursued by the Church of 

Alexandria at so critical a period. On the surface, it 

Meaning 

of the may have been a mere quarrel between two leading 

Quarrel. J ^ . . & 

Churchmen. At bottom, it was one important phase 
of a conflict ever going on between the conservative instinct 
and the spirit of progress. 26 Origen was a Philosopher, Deme- 
trius a Pastor. The former was large-minded and theoretic, the 
latter was practical and perhaps narrow-minded. Both of 
these classes have their uses in the world, but it seldom happens 
that they thoroughly and cordially understand one another. In 
the times of Origen, especially, the philosopher's cloak was 
still a novelty in the Church, and in the eyes of sober shepherds 
had much of the wolf-skin about it. Demetrius, doubtless, was 
open to misgivings on this score. So long, however, as Origen 
taught merely in the character of a religious and philosophic 
layman, the prudent Bishop might very properly refrain from 
R eason any hasty interference. In the same way, so long as 
font. Origen did not seek to be admitted to the priesthood, 
there was no occasion for any public censure of the injudicious 
act by which he had become canonically disqualified for the 
office. But it was a different case when his conduct and his 
teaching were to be authorized, as it were, by the seal of Holy 

24 See Huet's Origeniana, lib. i. iii. 10. 

2 5 Book III. ch. 3. 

26 Neander says, " The outward cause of the controversy was the hier- 
archical jealousy of Demetrius ; but the real ground lay deeper, r.nd outward 
circumstances only served to bring that hidden cause into public notice, which 
was the contrariety between Origen's Gnostic tendency and the anti-Gnostic." 
Hist, of Christian Dogmas. 



The Alexandrine School. 205 

Orders. Then it became a matter of indispensable necessity to 
look more closely into the character of the influence he was so 
widely and powerfully exerting. 

Accordingly this was done. Many of his views were right- 
eously condemned. 27 The Alexandrine School was Heresy 
arrested in a course, 28 which, without some such check, arrested. 
might have made it a mere nest of heretical speculations. 

On the other hand, in the Churches of Palestine, where 
Origen was so warmly encouraged, the way was opened for 
habits of mind which led in the fourth century to 

Influence 

Arian sympathies. His successors in the Catechetical in other 

o t i t~v • 1 1 • Quarters. 

School were Heraclas and Dionysms, both in course 
of time Bishops of Alexandria ; and, towards the end of the 
century, Pierius and Theognostus. Theodorus, afterwards 
called Gregory the Wonder-worker, Bishop of Neocsesarea in 
Pontus ; his brother Athenodorus ; Pamphilus, a learned Pres- 
byter of Csesarea in Palestine, whose name was adopted by 
Eusebius, the Church historian ; Firmilianus, the distinguished 
and able Bishop of Csesarea in Cappadocia ; and Julius Afri- 
canus, one of the earliest of Christian chronographers, were 
among his disciples or intimate friends. The character of such 

2 7 It has nothing to do with our judgment of Origen's orthodoxy, but 
deservedly weighs much in our estimate of his Christian character, that he 
was singularly modest in the expression of his views. For this he is much 
praised by Huet and others. 

23 As it was, Clement and Origen helped to give a spiritualistic tone to 
Alexandrine Theology. This was shown (i) in freedom of speculation 
(against, or beyond Scripture) on such subjects as an endless series of worlds, 
final salvation or at least salvability of the damned, ethereal character of the 
risen body, etc., etc. ; (2) in the emphasis laid on the doctrine of the Logos, 
and in dangerous theories in relation to that doctrine ; (3) in placing all 
virtue and perfection in gnosis, a sort of dispassionate contemplation ; (4) in 
affirming intellectual sins to be worse than moral, etc. The Chiliast, and 
other sensuous heresies, founded on a too close following of the letter of the 
Scriptures, were little favored in Alexandria. See Neander, History of 
Church Dogmas, and Gieseler, Church History, $ 63. As Origen's mind was 
many-sided, his writings also contributed to the rationalistic bias which after- 
wards showed itself in Palestine and Syria. 



206 History of the Church. 

men is an argument in favor of the essential soundness of theii 
teacher. It is a better argument, however, for the general 
soundness and conservative and restraining influence of the 
common-sense of the Church. Origen, in fact, both in his 
faults and in his merits, was considerably in advance of the 
in advance times in which he lived. Opposition to his teachings 
• **■ was precipitated somewhat by his imprudences of con- 
duct. Yet it hardly began fairly till the end of the third 
century, when Methodius, Bishop of Tyre, an eloquent but not 
very judicious writer, 29 opened a controversy that has continued 
at intervals to be revived with more or less bitterness, down to 
the present day. 

2 9 He was a martyr in ths Dioclesian persecution, a.d. 311. His princi- 
pal work is a eulogium on Virginity, in dialogue form, entitled " Banquet of 
Ten Virgins," some fragments of whicn remain in Epiphanius and Photius. 
Eusebius (possibly out of partiality for Origen) makes no mention of him. 



BOOK III. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCHES 



FIRST TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY. 



A.D. 200-324. 



Book III. 

CHAPTER I. 

NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 

The African Church, a name not including Egypt, Cyrene, or 
any of the dependencies of the See of Alexandria, had in the 
course of the second century extended the influence North 
of the Gospel over two of the three great provinces of Africa. 
Northern Africa. 1 Its territorial limits embraced ultimately 
Africa Proconsularis, Numidia, and Mauritania. In these were 
some three thousand towns and villages, with a mixed popula- 
tion of Romans, Greeks, Jews, and Africans both of Punic and 
indigenous race. 

It was a vast and fertile region, rich in commercial and 
agricultural resources, stocked with innumerable slaves, 2 and 
haunted at the commencement of the Christian era by 

Character 

a prolific brood of abominable superstitions. In this of the 

L r People. 

respect it was, even more than Rome or Alexandria, a 

sink of the whole world. 3 Each race which had settled in the 

1 Munteri, Primordia Eccles. African. See also Schelstrate, Eccles. 
Afric; and Morcelli, Africa Christiana. 

2 Apuleius mentions that there were four hundred slaves on a portion of 
his wife's property. Apuleii, Apolog. p. 333. Elmenh. 

3 In Afris pene omnibus, nescio quid non malum . . . inhumani . . . 
ebriosi . . . fallacissimi . . . fraudulentissimi . . . cupidissimi . . . per- 
fidissimi . . . quis nescit, Africam totam obscoenis libidinum tsedis semper 



2 1 o History of the Church. 

country had brought in with it its own peculiar rites ; and each 
imported rite the prurient imagination of Africa had invested 
with new horrors. Human victims were sacrificed to Baal, 
under the Roman name of Saturn. Maidens were devoted, 
Supersti- amid lewd songs and games and lascivious rites, to the 
Vesta Meretrieum, the Syrian Astarte. Magical rites, 
divination, necromancy, fetish-worship, had of course grown 
apace in so rank a soil. Nor were the morals of the people 
better than their religion. Cruelty, treachery, and lust were 
national characteristics. A fanatical self-devotion, blood-thirsty, 
gloomy, insatiable in its greed for horrors, swayed the soul alter- 
nately with a frivolity hardly more human. So that, notwith- 
standing the strong bridle of Roman law, and the so-called 
civilizing influences of baths, theatres, and temples, the Cross, 
it is likely, was never set up on more unpromising ground. 

Who the first Evangelists were, and whence they came, is a 

question involved in no little obscurity. There is a confused 

tradition of Pentecostal voices, sounding their glad 

When .... . .... . 

Evan- tidings along the coast, or even in the interior ; and 

gelized. , 

a vague rumor connects this early preaching with the 
names of Simon of Cyrene, Simon Zelotes, or, as some would 
have it, Simon Peter himself. Such traditions in themselves 
are of little value. It is not improbable, however, that some 
straggling rays of the great Pentecostal light had visited the 
Jews in this, as in all other parts of the Roman world ; and a 
few believers, gathered as in other places from among them or 
their proselytes, may have formed a connecting link between 
Africa and the matrix religionis, the Mother Church at Jerusa- 
lem. 

However this may be, the African Church could lay no claim 
Church to a strictly Apostolic origin. The Carthaginian fleet 
fished. that sailed annually to Rome with a supply of corn, 
returned some time about the beginning of the second century 

arsisse ? non ut terrain ac sedem hominum, sed ut yEtnam putes impudicarum 
fuisse flammarum, etc., etc. Salvian. De Provident, lib. vii. For much more 
to the same effect, see that very satisfactory book, Morcelli, Afric. Christian. 



Nortn African Chwch. 211 

with a more precious freight ; and Roman missionaries estab- 
lished an Episcopal See at Carthage. 

As the African Church was thus among the latest to begin its 
course, Carthage being almost the only important See to which 
the phrase sine charta et atramento* could not be ap- Its special 
plied: so its career was in many respects the most 
rapid and most brilliant. It gave to the world a Tertullian, a 
Cyprian, and an Augustine, the three principal teachers of West- 
ern Christianity ; and among minor writers, Minucius Felix, 
Arnobius, and Lactantius. A still greater interest attaches to 
its history from the fact that the ante-Nicene period covers both 
its rise and the commencement of its decline. For though it 
afterwards continued to exist, and to exert a certain influence 
till the time of the Mohammedan invasion, yet its latter years, 
oppressed by a foreign yoke and embittered by barbarous dis- 
sensions, exhibited little more than the melancholy symptoms 
of a slow but inevitable decay. This Church, then, as being 
not a planting merely, but as it were a ripened fruit of the first 
age of Christianity, seems to merit a larger space in this section 
of our history than can be accorded to others, whose importance, 
though eventually much greater, was of somewhat later date. 

Of its growth during the second century little is positively 
known, About the end of that period it comes suddenly into 
light : strong in faith, as witnessed by the martyrdom 

. . Its Growth. 

of the Scilhtans in the Sevenan persecution ; strong 
in numbers and organization, for at a council holden in Car- 
thage, under Agrippinus, the Primate of North Africa, 
as many as seventy Bishops were present, representing 
the two Provinces of Africa Proconsularis and Numidia. It 

4 The phrase is applied by S. Irenaeus to barbarous nations, which had to 
receive the Truth orally, before they could be taught to read the Scriptures. 
Carthage received the Truth and the Scriptures simultaneously ; which may 
account for the disposition among the Africans to use Scripture and tradition 
as synonymous terms. It also explains why, when looking for customs or 
traditions not contained in Scripture, they turned to Rome, as auctoritas 
prcesto — a witness close at hand. 



2 r 2 History of the Church. 

was in this Council that all baptisms administered by heretics 
were declared invalid. A little later the same stand 

A.D. 230. 

was taken by many Churches in the East, especially in 
the great Council of Iconium. 

The Scillitan martyrs were among the first who suffered for 
the Faith in North Africa. To the simplicity of their religion, 

which they pleaded and labored to commend to the 

bicillitan 

Martyrs, Proconsul Saturninus, he opposed what he regarded as 
a still more simple creed. 5 "Swear," says he, "by 
the genius of the Emperor." He seems to have been somewhat 
anxious to save them, if he could, from the extreme penalty of 
the law; and offered them for this purpose a respite of thirty 
days. The Scillitans, however, knew no path but the straight 
one. " Honor," they said, " they were always ready to give to 
the Emperor: but honor with prayer belonged to God only." 
They were sent back to prison to reconsider their resolve. But 
firm against the threats and deaf to the suggestions of the good- 
natured magistrate, twelve persons in all, nine men and three 
women, were beheaded ; giving thanks to God for His grace in 
allowing them to be enrolled in the glorious army of His mar- 
tyrs. The kind of punishment inflicted in this case is an indi- 
cation that the Scillitan witnesses, and perhaps the majority of 
believers in that region, belonged to the Latin part of the North 
African population. 

The persecution of the Christians, though commenced under 
a certain show of law, soon fell into the hands of an excited 
Heathen populace, and was marked by all the usual features of 
Cruelties, diabolical cruelty and malice. The Christians were 
accused of incredible abominations. Their assemblies were 
represented to be the scenes of such orgies as heathenism un- 
happily had made familiar to men's minds, though in a purer 
state of society they could hardly have been imagined. The 
punishments were in keeping with the imputed crimes. By a 
refinement of barbarism, not unknown elsewhere, but which 

5 Acta Proconsularia Marty rum Scillitanorum ; Baronius, Annal. ann. 
ccii. ; given also in Miinteri, Primordia. 



North African Church. 2 1 3 

seems to have originated in Africa, Christian virgins, whom the 
cry rid leones could not daunt, were condemned to the vile service 
of the infamous lenones. 6 Such outrages were naturally regarded 
as signs of Antichrist. It is not to be wondered at signs of 
that they engendered in some minds a gloomy, or at Antlchrist - 
all events visionary, temper, alien to the spirit of sober and true 
religion. 

Many circumstances conspired to foster such a spirit, both 
among the Christians and among their idolatrous and savage 
persecutors. The first blood shed had been followed Entku- 
by floods, tempests, meteors, subterranean thunders, 
and an extraordinary eclipse of the sun. By portents of this 
kind a fanatical temper was excited among the heathen, who 
attributed all calamities to the anger of their gods insulted by 
the Christians. On the other hand, the common Christian hope 
of the coming of the Lord was more vivid in times of peril, and 
sometimes degenerated into a morbid superstition. In a healthy 
state of mind, believers always prayed for the safety of p ray erpro 
the Empire, and pro mora finis : for a longer continu- MoraFinis - 
ance, that is, of the world's season of repentance. It was a 
symptom of a dangerous enthusiasm, when to some, in their 
confident and exultant expectation of the end, this charitable 
prayer became unmeaning or distasteful. 7 

From causes of this kind the enthusiasm of Montanus, already 
rife in many portions of the West, and naturally suited to the 
sensuous temper of the African and Africo-Roman sensuous 
mind, found in Carthage and its dependencies a soil Bms ' 

peculiarly fitted for its reception. This may be seen to some 

6 Tertullian mentions such a case in the last chapter of his Apologet. 
Cyprian alludes to it as a custom: " Virgines, venientis Antichristi minas, et 
corruptelas, et hipinaria, non timentes." De Mortal. In the later persecu- 
tions such cases became quite common. 

7 Montanistic Tertullian, e.g., finds fault with some, because " protr actum 
quendam sceculo postulant, cum regnum Dei, quod ut adveniat oramus, ad 
consummationem saeculi tendat." De Orat. 5. See also that fearful outburst 
so often cited against the early Church [De Spectactilis, c. 30), " Quale spec- 
taculum," etc. 



2 1 4 History of the Church. 

extent, even in that noble sample of the records of martyrdom, 
the Passion of S. Felicitas and S. Perpetua. 

Perpetua, a young matron of high social advantages, about 

twenty years of age at the time when she was called to suffer for 

the testimony of Christ, had an infant at her breast. 

Perpetua. 

She was obliged to withstand, moreover, the passionate 
threats and entreaties of a doting father. She pointed the latter, 
„ . , with a somewhat provoking calmness, to a pitcher in 

Trials. ° 

the cell. " Father," she asked, " what do you call that 
vessel? " "A pitcher," he replied. " But can you say that it 
is not a pitcher ? " "Of course, " said he, ' ' I can not. " " Then 
it is equally impossible for me to say that I am not a Christian." 
The old man left her in a fit of impotent rage and frenzy. At 
another time, when he came in "to cast her down," and in tears 
addressed her "not as daughter but as lady," she was deeply 
Grief 0/ grieved because of his gray hairs, and " because he was 
er ' the only one of her family that did not rejoice at her 
affliction;" and she comforted him, saying: "Nothing can 
happen at the tribunal, but what God wills ; for know that we 
are not in our own power, but in the hand of God." He with- 
drew from her, however, overwhelmed with sorrow. 

A few days after the first interview, the prisoners were bap- 
tized. On that occasion Perpetua was inspired to ask nothing 
Baptism of God but the grace of bodily endurance. Still, the 
m jail. gloom and stifling heat of the jail were almost insup- 
portable ; and she was pining with anxiety for her half-famished 
babe. The Deacons managed to get them a few hours of recre- 
ation out of doors. The infant was allowed to stay in prison 
with its mother. When she was relieved of this subject of 
anxiety, "the prison immediately became to her a Pretorian 
palace ; so that she would rather have been there than in any 
other place." 

Felicitas, a slave, was great with child. As the law forbade 
one in this condition to be put to death, she was dread- 

Felicitas. 

fully afraid that she might not be allowed to share the 
martyrdom of her companions. But she was delivered in prison 



North African Church. 2 1 5 

before her time, and was thenceforth full of joy. As she had 
exhibited anything but fortitude when taken with the pains of 
travail, one of the jailors said to her: "If you make such an 
ado now, what will become of you, I pray, when thrown to 
the wild beasts? " She answered : " It is I who suffer now ; at 
that time Another shall be in me, who will suffer for me, as I for 
Him." Some good-hearted Christian woman adopted the little 
innocent thus brought into the world. 

The captives found favor with their jailors, and were visited 
by crowds of sympathizing friends. Blessed Deacons ministered 
to their wants. Doctors deemed it an honor to fall 

Dreams 

down at their feet. They were cheered, moreover, by . and 

. . . , . Visions. 

ecstasies and visions. The celestial ladder, with a great 
dragon at its foot, and bristling on either side with swords and 
knives and hooks, led Perpetua to a garden, wherein sat the good 
Shepherd milking his ewes. Myriads robed in white were stand- 
ing in shining robes about Him. "Welcome, child," was His 
address to Perpetua, as He gave her a bit of cheese. 8 She re- 
ceived the gift with joined hands ; the bystanders responded with 
a loud ' 'Amen ; ' ' by all which she understood that the end was 
rapidly approaching, and cheerfully put aside all thoughts of the 
present life. In another dream, Dinocrates, her young brother, 
who had perished of a cancer at the age of nine years, was de- 
livered by her prayers 9 from the place of torment where she saw 
him. 

8 This seems to indicate a sympathy with some of the Montanist notions. 
See Gieseler, $ 59, note 9. The peculiarity of the Artotyrites, who attached 
a mystic meaning to bread and cheese, may have existed before a sect was 
formed on those peculiarities. 

9 On the efficacy of prayers for the dead, there were not precise notions, 
even among the more learned Christians. Among ordinary believers, it is 
likely, there were very loose views. The only prayers of the kind ordinarily 
sanctioned, however, were pro dormitione ; e. g., " A wife," according to 
Tertullian, should " pray for the soul of her deceased husband, that the twain 
may be reunited at the first resurrection (the millennium), and that in the 
meantime he may have refrigerium" — a quiet and refreshing rest: ad 
Uxor. See Abp. Usher, Ans. to Chall. of a Jesuit, c. 7. 



2 1 6 History of the Church. 

In other visions the disorders of the times were unsparingly- 
rebuked. The loquacity of the Africans, gathering noisily 
around their Bishop, was compared to the wrangling 
of a crowd of heathen just coming out of the circus. 
The day before the execution, the prisoners were allowed a fret 
banquet ; an indulgence usually granted to persons condemned 
to death. They availed themselves of the opportunity, to cele- 
brate the Agape or feast of love. The crowd, who gathered 
around from motives of curiosity, were commanded to take 
good note of the features of the victims, that they might be 
sure to recognize them at the Day of Judgment. Some were 
exasperated at these appeals. Upon others the evident sincerity 
of the confessors was not without effect. 

When the final conflict came, the better feelings of the 
crowd so far prevailed as to spare the martyrs the profanation 
Final of appearing in the robes of Ceres and of Saturn, 

conflict. w hi cn it had been intended they should wear. "To 
preserve our liberty," said Perpetua, "we freely give our lives. 
See ye to it that the bargain be not broken." The populace 
admitted the justice of the appeal. In a less commendable 
spirit, some of the male confessors addressed the spectators, 
and especially Hilarian, the Proconsul, with threatening looks 
and gestures ; for which they were ordered to be scourged. But 
it added to their joy, that their sufferings were thus made to 
conform more nearly to the Passion of the Lord. Finally, each 
Answer to underwent the death he had had the grace to pray for. 
Prayer. Saturninus, according to a desire he had more than once 
expressed, was exposed to the fury of all the wild beasts. Satu- 
rus had a particular horror of a bear, and the bear to which he 
was thrown refused to come near him. He was at last attacked 
by a leopard ; and as the blood gushed out, the populace shouted 
in derision of the Christian belief in the efficacy of martyrdom, 
Saivum Salvum lotum, salvum lotum : he who was thus baptized 
Latum. being regarded as sure of his own salvation. The 
women, in consequence perhaps of the popular exasperation 
which the men had somewhat needlessly provoked, were di- 



North African Church. 217 

vested of all their clothing, and hung up in nets to be tossed by 
wild cows. But at the sight of them in this condition, the 
crowd once more relented. They were allowed to clothe them- 
selves. Perpetua, surviving the first attack of the infuriated an- 
imal, was conscious enough to draw her robe over the parts of 
her person exposed, and to bind up her hair ; but seemed other- 
wise as one just awaking from a dream. When told what she had 
suffered, she said to her brother and to a certain catechumen : 
"Stand fast in the faith, love one another, and be not offended 
at what we endure." With the others who had survived the fury 
of the beasts, she was finally despatched with the sword. The 
rest received the fatal stroke in silence. Perpetua was woman 
enough to shriek as the weapon pierced her side ; but, Death of 
immediately recovering, guided the hand of the trem- Per P ctua - 
bling gladiator to a more mortal spot. Perhaps, adds the no- 
tary, the unclean spirit was afraid of her ; and, without her 
own consent, so noble a lady could not have been put to 
death. 

The beautiful narrative 10 from which these incidents are 
gleaned, was written in part by Perpetua herself; the preface 
and conclusion being added by a coarser hand. Some Montanist 
touches in it betray, as has been said, a Montanistic Sm 

bias. That the writer of the preface sympathized with the new 
Prophets, there can be no question. " The Spirit," he observes, 
"was not poured forth upon early times only. The older the 
world is, the more novel and the more startling the demonstra- 
tions of His power. And in the latest times of all, the more 
manifestly must appear the truth of the prediction that the 
young men shall see visions and the old shall dream Fondness 
dreams." That these " latest times of all" were act- f° rVisions - 
ually appearing, was a common and natural feeling amid the 
horrors of persecution. Hence an eagerness for martyrdom, 
passing the bounds of sobriety. Hence a fondness for ecsta- 
sies and visions, and an austerity of temper which sometimes 

10 Passio SS. Perpetua et Felicitatis atque Sociorum ; given in Milliter's 
Primordia Ecc. Af. 
JO 



2 1 8 History of the Church. 

clouded, without obscuring altogether, the simplicity and reality 
of the martyr's faith. 

It was probably about this time that Tertullian, 11 himself an 
epitome of the African religious mind, conceiving a great dis- 
Tertuiiian, g ust at tne laxity and worldliness which he had wit- 
**„; I35j nessed among the Roman and other Christians, boldly 
ob. a.d. 2i 7 . took the part of the << S pi r i tlia i s ^" as t hey called them- 
selves, against the easier and more indulgent views of the "car- 
nal " Catholics. 

There was a question, for example, as to the propriety of 
virgins being seen unveiled. The majority of the Church were 
Question content to let "custom" decide in matters of this 
kind. The stricter party were disposed to condemn 
the custom as scandalous and indecent, a sin against nature 
and the law of God. For awhile, the question was agitated 
without any serious breach of peace. At length, however, 
the contest day by day becoming more bitter, the unveiled 
virgins, or "virgins of men," as they were called, began to be 
"offended" at "the virgins of God," and the latter, perhaps, 
were scandalized in turn ; so that things were tending fast to 
an open rupture. 12 

Or, to take another instance, a Christian soldier had on a 
certain holiday declined to wear the chaplet, usually worn on 
Question o/ such occasions in honor of the Emperor. 13 The Spir- 
the Crown. j tua j s approved. The more compliant Catholics re- 
garded the man as scrupulous to excess, and even blamed him 
for exposing his brethren to needless persecution. Tertullian 
threw himself eagerly into these and similar quarrels of the day. 
A Roman by blood, a lawyer by education, but African and 

11 Qu. Septimius Florens Tertullianus ; on this subject, see Kaye's Ter- 
tullian ; Neander's Antignosticus ; and Tertullian. Op., etc. Nic. Rigalt. 
1689. 

12 Tertull. De Veland. Virgin. 2, 3. 

J 3 De Corona ; in which tract Tertullian advocates unwritten tradition 
almost as heartily as in the tract De Veland. Virginibus, he inveighs against it. 
In the one case custom was on his side, in the other not. See Hagenbach, 
Hist, of Doc. \ 34 (Buch's tr.). 



North African Church. 219 

atrabillious in his temper ; full of genius, moreover, intensely- 
sensuous and realistic, more eager than reverential in his pas- 
sionate devotion to the Truth, yet deeply, and at times ten- 
derly, solicitous for the souls of men : he had seen much in 
Rome and Carthage to put him out of temper with the Christi- 
anity of the day, and to make him look habitually on the dark 
side of things. To idealize the past into a sort of p as t and 
golden age, needs only a vivid imagination, or a feeble 
sense of facts. To see good in the present is a much harder 
task. It requires a supernatural gift of charity and patience. 
But in this virtue of patience, Tertullian, as he more than once 
acknowledged, was particularly deficient. It must be confessed, 
however, that by the end of the second century there were 
already facts in Christianity which good and earnest men found 
difficult to digest. 

The old landmarks betwixt the Church and the world were 
undergoing a gradual but visible removal. The believer and 
the infidel had, in the innocent customs of society 14 — Decline of 
in dress, in fashion, in amusements, in social freedom — Discipline. 
an amount of common ground which was every day enlarging, 
and which, by a convenient distinction between precepts of 
obligation and counsels of perfection, might admit of such an 
extension as to make Christian and heathen ethics substantially 
the same. In morals, as in doctrine, the Apostolic ship was 
much covered by the waves ; the Apostolic net had many rents 
in it. This decline was rebuked, but not remedied, by the 
followers of Montanus. These and other ascetics, Party 

by appropriating the term spiritual to themselves, and Names * 
the term psychical or carnal to the mass of their Christian 
brethren, had caused both to be regarded as mere party words. 
And when religious phrases come thus to be perverted into shib- 

** At this period converts were made in great numbers among the wealthy- 
middle class. In Alexandria, especially, Clement {Pcedagogus) found it nec- 
essary to inveigh against dresses, jewels, trinkets of every sort, rare birds, 
monkeys, lap-dogs, and other luxuries that defrauded orphans and widows of 
their just support. 



220 History of the Church. 

boleths of party, their authority over the conscience is in a 
great measure lost. 

Tertullian, however, was too earnest a man to join in the 

ridicule which the inflated pretensions of the Spirituals had 

drawn upon them. He saw in them the advocates of 

Spirituals 

and a return to stricter ways. Their lives comparad favor- 

Psy chics. 

ably with the somewhat frivolous behavior tolerated 
among Catholics. They seemed to be reformers. And their 
wonderful success — for the influence of Montanism had spread 
with a rapidity that seemed to rival the first effusion of Pente- 
costal light — gave plausibility to the claim of a special demon- 
stration of spiritual power. 

Under these circumstances, persuaded by Proculus, a Mon- 
tanistic leader, and influenced by the favor shown in Rome 

to Praxeas the Patripassian, Tertullian undertook, as 

Tertul- x 

Hans party, he expresses it, the defence of the Paraclete, and so 

A.D. 20I. 

beca?ne separated from the Psychics, or Catholics. But 
it was not in his nature to be a mere follower in a sect. The 
heartiness and boldness which estranged him from one party, 
made him in time a separatist from the other. He and his co- 
religionists in North Africa, became, in fact, Tertullianists rather 
than Montanists. The congregation lingered, though gradually 
diminishing in numbers, till the times of S. Augustine ; 15 when, 
at last, "the few who remained came back into the Church, 
and transferred their Basilica to the care of the Catholics." 

How Tertullian and his party were regarded by the ortho- 
dox of Carthage is not quite clear. He was condemned in 
His Rome ; he was anathematized, perhaps, by one of the 

Position. Carthaginian Councils. 16 Still, a kindly feeling seems 
to have subsisted between him and the great body of the Church. 
His followers also experienced some indulgence. Fasting strictly 

T 5 S. Augustin. Ad Quodvultdeum. Hares. 86. 

16 A sentence in his tract, De Pudicit. — " ecclesia quidem delicta donabit, 
sed ecclesia spiritus per spiritalem hominem, non ecclesia numerus episco- 
porum " — is generally supposed to have been aimed at some Council that 
had condemned him. 



North African Church. 221 

and frequently, abhorring second marriages, insisting more than 
others upon clerical celibacy, shunning the fashions and amuse- 
ments, and so far as possible the business of the world, looking 
with scornful pity upon the compliances and evasions of a carnal 
Catholicism, and fortifying themselves in all this by dreams, 
ecstasies, and visions, with a lively hope of the speedy manifes- 
tation of the heavenly Jerusalem, they had too strong a hold 
upon the sympathies of believers to be easily or suddenly sepa- 
rated from them. In the course of time, however, they became 
more sour ; and it was from the bitter root of Phrygian enthu- 
siasm that sprang some of the wildest errors of North African 
religion. 

But in the meanwhile, Tertullian had gained a place in the 
affections of all parties, from which no anathema has been able 
to dislodge him. Fnit in ecclesia magjia tentatio, says His 

Vincent of Lerins : his position in the Church was In ^ uence ' 
indeed a great trial. By his plastic genius, and ready and rough 
vigor, he almost created the religious language of the West. 
He was a mighty champion for the Faith, against the subtle 
rationalism of Praxeas whom he forced to retract his errors, and 
against the Gnostic views of Marcion, Hermogenes, Apelles, 
and other disturbers of the times. He is the exponent of that 
mighty struggle against sin, that deep and earnest sense of the 
necessity of grace, that intense realism and individualism in 
matters of religion, which has remained characteristic 

Religious 

of the Western mind. His unquestionable services to Earnest- 

the cause of orthodoxy, and still more to the cause 

of religious earnestness, 17 were no doubt appreciated by the 

r 7 Tertullian's mind was thoroughly anti-gnostic, and his bias diametri- 
cally opposite to that of the Alexandrine doctors. His conceptions were 
sensuous in the extreme. Thus among his paradoxes he maintained that God 
is corporeal — being unable to conceive that anything without body could exist 
(which, however, was probably nothing more than a rough way of asserting 
the personality of God) ; that Christ (when He appeared to the Patriarchs) and 
the Angels were clothed injlesh ; that souls are propagated with the body ex 
traduce, and are themselves corporeal ; that wicked souls become demons after 
death, etc. From the same turn of mind he conceived of the grace of bap- 



222 History of the Church. 

mass of his countrymen ; and atoned in their eyes, as they have 
atoned in the eyes of posterity, for a multitude of philosophic 
and theologic errors. 

But it happened with this great master, as with the equally 
great Origen in the East, that the Church spirit of his times 
The church proved stronger than the influence of any individual 
s th°an S the spirit. The disciples of Tertullian, and especially 
Schools. g_ Cyprian and S. Augustine, appreciated his merits 
without following him in his errors. 18 He exerted an influence 
upon the doctrinal development of his day, but he did not 
control it. 

With the death of Severus, the persecution in Africa, as 

elsewhere, ceased. An interval of forty years of peace, occa- 

sionally interrupted by temporary outbreaks, allowed 

Peace, the good seed and the bad to grow up together. The 

A.D 211 

Church extended itself into the remoter Province of 
Mauritania. Councils were held, some of them attended by as 
many as ninety Bishops ; in one of which Privatus, probably a 
Bishop, was condemned for some heresy unknown. 

For the rest, Gnostic or Montanistic sects, unmolested so far 

as we can learn by a succession of indulgent and not very able 

Bishops, contended for the right of women to teach : 

Sects. 

or endeavored to make sense of the incoherent utter- 
ances of the ecstatic prophetesses ; or, in the picturesque lan- 
guage of the times, killed the fish of Christ by forbidding them 

tism as lodged in the water, to which he ascribed a sort of magical operation — 
the water being, as it were, transubstantiated. Expressions of this kind scat- 
tered over his works are capable of a charitable and orthodox interpretation ; 
but they show, none the less, the peculiarity of his mind. (It would be easy 
to show that the same bias has pervaded and still pervades the Western mind 
generally.) His practical turn is seen in a mere enumeration of his writings 
— about shows, idolatry, marriage, prayer, baptism, female apparel, veils, 
crowns, fasts, etc., etc. In treating all such matters, he took the austere side, 
but was as sensuous against abuses as others were for them. See Neander's 
Antignosticus . For Tertullian's paradoxes, see Essay of Pamel. prefixed to 
his Works. 

18 They partook not a little, however, of his peculiar bias. 



North African Church. 223 

the water ; or used water instead of wine in the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper ; or cultivated peculiarities of posture and of 
gesture ; or railed, as occasion served, against Bishops and other 
rulers. 19 On the whole, there seems to have been much of 
mutual forbearance. The Canons passed in Councils spirit of 
were directed mainly against the encroachments of a the World - 
worldly spirit. That Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, were not to 
engage in secular affairs ; that the sons of clergymen were not 
to marry among infidels or heretics ; that no one should be 
ordained till he had made Catholic Christians of his 

Drift of 

own household ; that virgins, deprived of their nat- ck-urch 

Laws. 

ural guardians, should be committed to the care of 
grave elderly females : these, and similar laws, show the drift 
of the legislation and of the temptations of the times. Of 
other matters, beyond occasional names, added probably through 
popular violence to the roll of Martyrs, so little record remains, 
that until the reign of the Emperor Decius and the troubled 
episcopate of S. Cyprian, the thread of African Church history 
becomes almost invisible. 

T 9 Of the Aquarians, Quintillians , Artotyriles, and other absurd sects, 
little beyond the name is known. It is probable enough, however, that as the 
Montanists and Gnostics became more and more divided, they departed fur- 
ther from the customs of the Church ; so that the decree of the council under 
Agrippinus, requiring converts from them to be baptized, was a necessary pre- 
caution ; the rite being either neglected, or improperly performed. 



224 



History of the Church. 



CHAPTER II. 



CARTHAGE AND S. CYPRIAN. 



When Cyprian, 1 a convert from heathenism, and a man of 
wealth, education, and high social standing, rose by 
Bishop, rapid steps from the grade of a catechumen to that of 
the Episcopate of Carthage and the Primacy 2 of North 
Africa, he found the Church, from causes already alluded to, in 
a state of considerable disorder. 

A factious spirit extensively prevailed, and scandals were rife 
among Laity and Clergy. The Virgins and Confessors — re- 
state o/ garded more and more as the flower of Christianity, 
the Church. an( j treated f or t i iat reason with a perilous indulgence 
— were not a little crazed by the flattery, which even the Bish- 
ops,, when they ventured to reprove them, could not prudently 
withhold. 

1 At his baptism he adopted the name Csecilius in gratitude to an aged 
Presbyter of that name, who had been instrumental in his conversion ; so that 
his full name reads Thascius Ccecilius Cyprianus . His life, or rather, his 
eulogy, was written by Pontius, his deacon ; but his public acts are to be found 
in a more authentic form in his own spirited writings. See Poole, Life and 
Times of S. Cyprian ; S. Caecil. Cyprian. Op. Omn. a Joanne Fello — acce- 
dunt Annales Cyprianici a Joanne Pearson, et Dissertationes Cyprianic. 
Henric. Dodwell. Amstelodam. 1700. Cypriani, Op. Genuina, Goldh. Lips. 
1838. 

2 In the days of Agrippinus (a.d. 215), there seems to have been but one 
primate in North Africa. By the middle of the century there were three, Car. 
thage, however, still holding the first place. The primacies of Numidia and 
Mauritania were attached to no particular See, but were given to the oldest 
Bishops. For the powers of the Primate (which were strictly limited), see 
Miinter, Primord. ix. 2. 



Carthage and S. Cyprian. 225 

Of the Virgins, some were petulant in behavior and im- 
modest in attire. 3 So far from veiling themselves from the 
gaze of a profane world according to the strict notions Bad 

of Tertullian, they seem to have been living almost C °of l the 
without rule. They wasted their time ; they spent ^ zr ^ns. 
their money capriciously ; they dressed and painted to such ex- 
cess that, "when God looked for the faces of His elect, He saw 
only the false colors and gewgaws of the Devil." Others of 
them became notorious as gossips. They were wont to gad about 
from house to house ; and delighted in the wanton merry-mak- 
ings which African society tolerated and encouraged at marriage 
feasts. Some preferred the heathen to the Christian rule of de- 
cency, and did not scruple to be seen among the unblushing 
rabble of both sexes that frequented the public baths. Their 
manners, in short, were not only scandalous, but — from a mod- 
ern point of view, and without reference to the omnipotence of 
fashion in determining questions of decorum — they might be 
thought inconsistent with any sense at all of Christian obliga- 
tions. 

The Virgins, in fact, had in very many cases mistaken their 
calling. Under all the circumstances of the times, it was nat- 
ural enough that this should be frequently the case. Motives to 
Virginity was not only an honorable state : it was free Vir £ init y- 
from care. At a time when households were divided on the 
subject of religion, and when, owing to the ubiquitous pressure 
of a filthy, but to young persons fascinating, idolatry, 4 the rear- 
ing of children in Christian habits presented difficulties 

° r Its Perils. 

without number : 5 domestic life was often a bitter ser- 
vitude : marriage involved the gravest perils and temptations; 

3 S. Cyprian. De Habitu Virgin. In this and the following paragraphs 
I follow S. Cyprian and Tertullian, though the ardent censors of the vices of 
an age are not always good authority as to the extent of the prevalence of 
those vices. 

4 S. Augustine, De Civitat. Dei, ii. 26, draws a frightful picture of the 
obscenities of heathen worship. 

5 Hence Tertullian's main objection to infant baptism. Of the servitude 
incident to domestic life in semi-heathen society, the same writer speaks feel- 

IO* 



226 History of the Church. 

and celibacy was regarded as not only more safe to the individ- 
ual, but more fruitful to the Church, 6 than any other condition. 
It was popular on prudential as well as on enthusiastic grounds. 
It was sought, therefore, with avidity by some who had no nat- 
ural fitness for it. But being sought thus, it was in many cases 
abused. Its freedom from care became an occasion of perilous 
self-indulgence. Its dignity ministered to vanity and pride. 
Even its purity was by a strange freak of conscience regarded 
as an athletic or agonistic virtue, the more perfect in proportion 
as it challenged or solicited temptation. 

From similar causes, the insolence of some of the Martyrs 

or Confessors had become another crying sin of the times. 7 No 

Bishop or Presbyter, nor, so far as we can learn, any 

Confessors. 

other distinguished person, had so far suffered in North 
Africa. 8 The victims, therefore, it is probable, were too often 
of that class which courted persecution. 9 But they were none 
the less objects of popular and feminine idolatry. Their wounds 
and stripes were badges of honor. They went in and out as a 

ingly in many places. Apologet. 3 ; Ad Uxor. ii. 4, 6. To heathen husbands, 
the antelucan meetings were particularly offensive. Says Apuleius : " Tunc 
(mulier) spretis atque calcatis divinis numinibus, in vim certse religionis, 
mentita sacrilega prsesumptione Dei quern proedicaret unicum, confictis obser- 
vationibus vanis, fallens omnes homines, et miserum maritum decipiens, 
matutino viero ct continuo stupro corpus mancipat." 

6 In illis largiter floret ecclesiae matris gloriosa fcecunditas. S. Cypr. De 
Habit. Virgin. 

7 Tertullian thus indignantly sums up the powers granted by Zephyrinus, 
Bishop of Rome, to these Confessors : " At tu jam et in Martyres tuos effundis 
hanc potestatem, ut quisque ex consensione vincula induit, adhuc mollia in 
novo custodise nomine, statim ambiunt mcechi statim adeunt fornicatores, jam 
preces circumsonant, . . . . et hide communicatores revertuntur," etc. The 
insolence, tyranny, and presumption, that naturally followed, are fully seen in 
S. Cyprian's Epistles. 

8 So says Deacon Pontius in his life of S. Cyprian. 

9 The quiet way in which Hippolytus describes the effort of Callistus to 
recover his credit among the brethren, by making a disturbance in a Jewish 
synagogue and thus exposing himself to martyrdom, shows that cases of that 
kind were not uncommon. See chap. iv. of this Book. 



Carthage and S. Cyprian. 227 

privileged class. And as their ranks, even in times of peace, 
were constantly recruited through the wantonness of the mob 
and the culpable indifference of the magistrates, they became a 
sort of irregular third power, having an influence as Their 

great as that of the Clergy, without a corresponding In -fi uen e - 
sense of responsibility and duty. The evil was increased by the 
popular belief that martyrdom, or in its degree, Confessorship, 
was a plenary atonement for every kind of sin. 

To what extent worse vices obtained among a certain portion 
of the Clergy, and among that class of devotees, male or female, 
married or unmarried, who set up their chastity as an sisters of 
idol of vainglory, and took a giddy pleasure in hang- the Clergy - 
ing over the pit from which they professed to have escaped, it 
is needless to inquire : the cases actually mentioned by early 
writers being few in comparison with the severity of their stric- 
tures on the subject. 10 The subintroductcz, virgins who lived as 
sisters with unmarried priests, were a nuisance against which 
sermons, canons, and anathemas were for a long time ineffectual. 
In despite of all precautions, the Agape, a most beau- The Agape 
tiful, but alas ! a most vulnerable feature of the early abused - 
Church system, was accompanied with disorders which even at 
this period broke out from time to time, and which at length led 
to intolerable abuses. In Tertullian's day such evils were deeply 
felt. In S. Cyprian's they had to be deplored cum summo animi 
gemiiu et dolor e. " 

In excesses of this kind there was probably less of intentional 

10 That the abuse was an obstinate one, however, is shown by the number 
of canons that had to be framed against it. I, Carthaginiens . can. 3 ; II, can. 
17; IV, can. 46; Niccen. can. 3; Ancyran. can. 19. See Dodwell, Dissertai. 
Cyprian, iii. 

11 Tertull. De Jejun. adv. Psychic. 17; S. Cyprian,^, vi. Pariss. Ter- 
tullian, however, in his Apolog. (39), written when he was still a Catholic, 
tells a different story. In the one case he looked upon the Church with an 
Apologist's eye, in the other, with that of a censor : in the one case he con- 
sidered the general aspect of things, in the other, he was looking at particular 
defects. The most philosophic as well as the most charitable judgment is 
that which is made from the former point of view. 



228 History of the Church. 

hypocrisy than of enthusiastic self-deception. Conscience, like 
sdf. the needle in the compass, is true to its trust only in 

deception. a certa j n equilibrium of the soul. In the condition of 
the early Church, at certain periods, there was much to disturb 
this even balance, and to bring on a state of mind in which 
extravagance and absurdity became more or less the test of re- 
ligious earnestness and reality. 

It is not improbable, however, that there were those among 
the Africans whose hypocrisy was of a cooler and more 

Other Vices. Jtr J 

calculating kind. Avarice had its place among the 

vices of the Clergy. There was much traffic in sacred things. 

In the strong and wholesome language of the most 

Avarice. . ° ° 

eminent censor of the times, the serpent, condemned 
to eat dust and to crawl upon the ground, had dragged many 
priests with him into the same degradation. Some were en- 
tangled in secular affairs. From a cupidity disgraceful to them- 
selves, or from a negligence of their support discreditable to 
the Church, even Bishops left their Sees, and engaging actively 
in mercantile pursuits, acquired an ill name as usurers or sharp- 
ers. 12 A natural result of all this was that sect feeling 
and party spirit grew up among the Laity. Church 
rulers were despised, Church laws set at naught. Mixed mar- 
riages were common. Matrons gave themselves to worldly cares 
and pleasures ; and to please their husbands became extrava- 
gant in dress and lukewarm in religion. Heathen shows and 
feasts were frequented with little scruple. Catechu- 

Frivolity. 

mens put off their baptism that they might be the 
more free to sin. The Church's pensioners, the poor, were 
grudgingly supported. The pious fervor which good men had 
really felt, and which hypocrites had found it necessary to feign 
as a tribute to religion, was beginning to die out ; and faith 
was sinking into a profound and ill-omened slumber. 13 

12 S. Cyprian, De Lapsis, 6. 

*3 Taylor's Early Christianity makes a sophistical use of such facts. 
The Church is charged with vices against which she was contending On 
this subject Mr. Poole, in his Life and Times of S. Cyprian, very properly 



Carthage and S. Cyprian. 229 

Under these circumstances, the election of S. Cyprian to the 
Episcopate of Carthage, against the vigorous opposition of five 
leading Presbyters of the city, was a happy instinct on Cyprian 
the part of that majority by which he was chosen and 
almost forced into the office. As his character was well known, 
it was also a pledge that the evils above mentioned were rather 
accidents of the times, than things encouraged or tolerated by 
the spirit of the Church. 

He was a man remarkably well fitted for the work that lay 
before him. Converted to Christianity in the prime of life and 
in the full maturity of his powers, by one of those sudden revo- 
lutions in which the passage from darkness to light is His 
like the dropping of thick scales from the eyes, he had /or Ms 
1:0 room for reserves or for lingering regrets. By a 
mighty Hard he had been led forth in haste from the bondage 
of corruption. 14 He brought with him into the Ministry all the 
freshness of first love ; giving himself wholly to it, and disposing 

remarks : " What can be more satisfactory proof of the purity of the Christian 
Church, as a society, from any particular vice, than the indignant reprobation 
of that vice by all who hint at it, and its denunciation by several Councils ? " 
To this it may be added, that some of the worst sins sprang then, as now, 
from that abuse of private j udgment or private conscience, which the Church 
may censure but cannot possibly prevent. Almost all the Encratites were 
persons of a singularly independent turn of mind. If the maxim of S. Igna- 
tius, " Do nothing without the Bishop," had been heeded in all cases, we 
: hould never have heard of Origen's insane act, or of such follies as those of 
the subintroductce. 

x 4 " So entirely was I immersed in the deadly atmosphere of my former 
li"e . . . that I despaired of ever freeing myself, etc. But when the filth of 
my past sins was washed away by the waters of Baptism, the pure and serene 
light from above infused itself into my whole spirit ; when my second birth 
of the Spirit had formed in me a new man, all at once what had been doubt- 
ful before, became certain ; what had been shut was opened ; into the dark- 
ness light shined ; that was easy which before was difficult, and that only diffi- 
cult which before was impossible ; and now I knew that it was the earthly 
and mortal which had held me in the bondage of sin ; but that the Holy 
Spirit of God had animated me with a new and better nature." Ad Dona- 
tum de Grat. Dei. Ep. i. Pariss. 



230 History of the Church. 

of his handsome private property in the same way as he dis- 
pensed the revenues of the Church, — namely, as a steward rather 
Hi s than as an owner. 15 He was eminently practical in all 

er ' his views. With a benevolence which endeared him 
to the poor, and a remarkable suavity of manner, he had much 
of the strong clear-headedness, verging on severity, of the old 
Roman temper, — the masculine good sense of Tertullian, 16 with- 
out his brilliant and versatile genius. His saintliness, there- 
fore, was of no artificial or conventional type. It was the con- 
secration of a firm will, manly instincts, magnanimous disposi- 
tion, and of a mind as politic and sagacious as it was earnest 
and intrepid, to the special task which the untowardness of the 
times, and perhaps the negligence of his predecessors, had 
suffered to accumulate for him. 

And this task was the revival of discipline in the Church. 

If reform, strictly speaking, had been needed, Cyprian was the 

man for the work of a reformer. As it was, the short- 

His 

special comings and excesses of the day were rather the abuse 

Mission. 

of a good inheritance, than any constitutional or radi- 
cal disease. There was no lack of wholesome rules. There 
was no want, if it could only be turned in the right direction, of 
an earnest and fruitful though undisciplined Christian spirit. 
To arouse that spirit, to bring it to bear upon the enforcement 
of the canons, to chasten and direct it, to curb its extravagances 
without impairing its true strength, was the object, which with 
singular clearness of perception and tenacity of purpose, S. 
Cyprian kept before him. 

In looking around for the means of carrying out this pur- 

*5 Pontius says that he gave all his goods to the Church ; but as we learn 
afterwards that his property was confiscated in the Decian persecution, it 
seems probable that he kept the administration of it in his own hands. In- 
deed, as Bishop, he could hardly have done otherwise. 

16 Tertullian was his favorite author. When he said " Da mihi magis- 
trum," it was always known what book he meant. With such a master, 
Cyprian's rapid proficiency in the knowledge of the Scriptures is not so won- 
derful as (considering his late conversion) it might at first sight appear. 



Carthage and S. Cyprian. 231 

pose, he found the real working power of the Church practically 
distributed among three classes. There were the Working 
Clergy, headed by the Bishop, but considerably im- Forces. 
paired in influence by the prevalence of party spirit ; the Laity, 
represented in the North African Church by the Senior es po- 
puli, 17 a sort of lay-elders, who acted with the Clergy in all 
matters of discipline and Church business ; and lastly, the Mar- 
tyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and the like — an irregular semi- 
clerical third power 18 — the weight of which, however, was 
generally thrown into the scale of popular opinion. Theoreti- 
cally, the Bishop was the head of this system. Practically, each 
class had a voice of undefined potency. Nothing without the 
People was as operative a rule, as Nothing without the Balance 
Bishop. There was, in truth, a practical balance of °f Power - 
Church powers which custom had established, but which neither 
custom nor theory had accurately defined. In the Word and 
the Sacraments the Clergy were supreme. In the choice and 
maintenance of the Clergy the People ruled. In matters of 
discipline both were consulted ; both had a voice ; and against 
the express will of either nothing could assume a legal or bind- 
ing form. 19 

*7 President probati quique seniores, honorem istum non pretio sed testi- 
monio adepti. Tertull. Apol. c. 39. 

13 Of this third power in the Church, Albaspineus, quoted and confirmed 
by Schelstrate, speaks thus: "The ancient Church had nothing rare or pi e- 
cious in her gift, that she gave not to Martyrs ; so that, while they lacked the 
ministerial character, they became lay-Bishops, at least in power, and had 
even more authority and weight than Presbyters or Bishops." In confirma- 
tion of which he quotes Tertullian : Quid ergo ? si Episcopus, si Diaconus, 
si Vidua, si Virgo, si Doctor, si etiam Martyr lapsus a regula fuerit : ubi 
pluris facere Martyres, quam Episcopos et Presbyteros, atque aliquid supra 
Episcopum addere videtur. Schelstrate, Eccles. African, ii. 4. 

J 9 0f the many proofs of this, I select two : S. Cyprian, in his nth Ep., 
Fratribus in Plebe Consist entibus, speaking of 'the case of the lapsed : " Cum 
pace nobis omnibus a Domino prius data ad ecclesiam regredi cceperimus, 
tunc examinabuntur singula prczsentibus et judicantibus vobis." See same 
Ep., and the tract, De Lapsis, passim. In the Acta Purgationis Cccciliani 
(S. Optati Op. Dupin, p. 169), the following direction is given: Adhibete con- 



232 History of the Church. 

Cyprian did not attempt a readjustment of this system. 
Cyprians He took it as it was, and conscientiously worked 
Policy ' with it. 

When it was necessary, therefore, for himself to act, he laid 
much stress, as was right and natural, upon episcopal preroga- 
tive. When he had to work through the popular element, he 
spake in equally high terms of the dignity and responsibility 
that lay upon the People. In the same spirit, he magnified 
true martyrdom, he exalted true virginity ; though the Martyrs 
and Virgins sometimes were but scourges in his side. On the 
other hand, he disparaged no class ; he elevated none at the 
expense of other classes. The Church to him was a living 
body composed of many living forces. To enable each force 
Ail classes to live and work with freedom, 20 but to bring all at 
exalted. ^q same time under that strong control, without 
which freedom and even life is an impossible chimera, was, so 
far as he had a theory — which, being eminently a man of 
action, it is probable he had not — the substance of his theory 
of Ecclesiastical discipline and order. 

A few instances of his management of particular cases that 
came before him, may here be mentioned as illustrations of this 
point. 

Rogatian, an aged Bishop, consults him about the case of a 

clericos et seniores plebis ecclesiasticos viros, et inquirant diligenter, quae sint 
istae dissensiones. 

20 Mosheim, in his one-sided and disingenuous remarks on this subject, 
acknowledges that Cyprian " attributes much importance to the clergy and the 
people," that "he makes the Church to be superior to the Bishop," — which 
is a mistranslation of Cyprian's words ; but contends that " this man of un- 
questionable excellence and worth . . . yields to circumstances when he admits 
associates in the government of the Church, but speaks oict the sentii/ients of 
his heart when he extols bishops," etc. That is, Mosheim takes half of 
Cyprian's words as honest, and rejects the other half as mere diplomacy; a 
process by which any man may be proved to be anything that a hostile critic 
chooses to make of him. In the same way, Mosheim sees in Cyprian nothing 
but contradictions and confusion of ideas. But the contradiction is merely, 
that Cyprian's language continually contradicts Mosheim's interpretation of 
that language. Historical Commentaries ', vol. ii. \ 24. 



Carthage and S, Cyprian. 233 

contumacious Deacon. Cyprian, in answer, points out the 
canonical power to degrade the offender : but recom- 

Examples. 

mends a further trial of patience and forbearance. 
Geminius Victor, an ecclesiastic, had violated the canon which 
forbade dying men to make the clergy executors or guardians. 21 
Cyprian caused the canon to be enforced. The only punish- 
ment provided for in such cases was the postmortem sentence, 
that "no oblation should be made for his death; no prayer 
nor sacrifice for his repose. ' ' His name, in other words, was 
stricken from the diptychs. He was to have no part in that 
solemn commemoration of the departed, which was one of the 
marked features of the early Eucharistic Service. 22 An actor, 
who after baptism continued to teach though not to practise his 
art, was commanded to desist. It was better, Cyprian reasoned, 
that one should live on the Church alms or even starve, than 
earn a livelihood by a scandalous and perilous profession. In 
numberless such cases Church rulers had to struggle against the 
encroachments of the spirit of the world. In this struggle 
struggle they had the canons on their side, and the world. 
general sentiment of the Church. But on the other side there 
were considerations of temporary expediency, w r hich were al- 
ready beginning to make the canons practically a dead letter. 

With regard to the great scandal of the subintroducta, the 
Bishop was equally decided. " No one can be secure virgins 
who exposes himself to danger without need : God bo j\<h? r ly 
will save no servant of His from the devil who puts thl^give 
himself gratuitously in the way of the devil's snares." Scandal. 
If any professed virgins found themselves unfitted for that 

21 In such cases, the Clergy were obliged by the civil law to accept the 
responsibility, and thus became entangled in secular concerns. 

22 The diptychs were properly the roll of all who, as " citizens of the 
Heavenly City," had their names written in " the Book of Life." All believ- 
ers, after their departure, were probably mentioned once in the Eucharistic 
Service. Afterwards some were excluded by way of discipline. Martyrs 
became entitled to a perpetual commemoration. This custom, like many 
other similar practices, had a wholesome operation for awhile, but degene- 
rated into abuses and superstitions. See Dodwell, Dissertat. Cyprian, v. 



234 History of the Church. 

state, they should not hesitate to marry. If they declined this 
remedy, and persisted in giving scandal, they were to be cap- 
itally punished. For under the old law, as Cyprian reasoned, 
such offenders were slain with the carnal sword : now they should 
be slain with the spiritual sword, — they should be put to death 
by being put out of the Church. Accordingly, he approved of 
the sentence of excommunication passed upon a certain Deacon 
who had offended in this way; a decision in which, as usual 
in such cases, 23 the Presbyters of Carthage were consulted and 
concurred. 

But the cause of discipline, with the chastisement of the 

disorders so prevalent everywhere, was becoming too weighty a 

task for any earthly prelate. As S. Cyprian had felt 

Warnings J 

ofjudg- from the beginning of his episcopate, and as he had 

ment. 

seen, indeed, in visions divinely sent, a time of thorough 
sifting was nigh at hand. These presentiments of coming judg- 
ment, with confident predictions based upon them, were a decided 
feature of what may be called the inner religious history of the 
early Church. 24 They are not uncommon in all ages of the world. 

In S. Cyprian's case, such monitions were allowed no 

Dreams 

and little force in determining his conduct. In proportion, 

Visions. 

therefore, as he felt the forewarning shadow of a divine 
judgment upon the Church — " to cauterize her wounds, to purge 
her humors, to nerve her whole frame " — he was the more earnest 
in urging upon all her members the necessity of self-judgment. 25 

2 3"A primordio episcopatus mei statui, nihil sine consilio vestro mea 
privatim sententia gerere. Sicut honor mutuus poscit, in commune tractabi- 
mus." Epistol. v. Pariss. 

2 4 " Sancto Spiritu suggerente, et Domino per visiones multas et mani- 
festas admonente" — was the formula of a Carthaginian Council, a.d. 252. 
These visions were ridiculed by many. As Cyprian says [Epistol. ad Floren- 
tium Pupianum), " I know that dreams and visions seem frivolous to some ; 
but only to those who would rather believe against the priests than believe 
with them." On this subject, see Dodwell, Dissertat. Cyp. iv. 

=5 Origen, about the same time, was predicting persecutions, on the ground 
that they were needed, and from his foreseeing " that the downfall of the State 
religion" would be considered by many Emperors disastrous to the Empire. 
See Neander's Church History, \ i. part ii. 



Carthage and S. Cyprian. 235 

When the expected storm came, it raged more widely, more 
furiously, and with a more decided effort to exterminate the 
Church, than any similar event before. The reign of 

' 3 ° Eighth 

some of the preceding Emperors, and especially of Perse. 

Philip, had given the Church a foretaste of the deceitful 
sunshine of imperial protection. Philip, stained with many 
crimes, but with religious feeling enough to make him super- 
stitious, had even desired to have a part in the prayers of 
the Church ; and, it is said, had gone through the form 
of penance required in such cases. 26 He was supplanted by 
Decius, who, partly from hatred of a system favored 

' ' L J J Decius 

by his predecessors, and partly from a desire to revive Emperor, 

A.D. 249. 

the memory of the old Roman glory which he attributed 
to the favor of the gods, proceeded to a determined and system- 
atic persecution. His edicts to that effect were sent forthwith 
into all the principal cities. 

Fabianus, Bishop of Rome, was among the earliest victims. 
The post he had held was too offensive to the Em- Fabianus 
peror, and consequently too perilous, for any imme- a Mart ^ r - 
diate successor. It remained vacant, therefore, for more than 
one year. 

When the imperial edict reached Carthage, a court of inquiry 
was appointed, consisting of a magistrate and five citizens, and 
a day was set for Christians to clear themselves by Cyprian 
sacrificing to idols. Many availed themselves of the retires - 
interval thus allowed, and withdrew into the country. Among 
these was Cyprian himself. Admonished by a dream, and 
justified by the common interpretation of our Lord's direction 
for such cases, 27 he hid himself from the tempest and awaited 

26 Euseb. vi. 36. That an Emperor like Philip, addicted to superstitions 
of all kinds, and having little of the Roman feeling for the State religion, 
should in his times of remorse have turned towards the Church, does not 
seem to me at all improbable. The reality of his faith is, of course, another 
question. 

2 7 S. Matt. x. 23. There was the additional reason that Cyprianum ad 
leones had become the cry, and his presence in the city exasperated the heathen. 



236 History of the Church. 

other times. He was proscribed by the magistrates, and his 
goods confiscated. From his place of retreat, however, he kept 
a watchful eye upon Church affairs in Carthage, and governed 
with as much vigor as if he had been there in person. 

Of those who remained, not a few denied Christ in a variety 
of ways ; some promptly, 28 some reluctantly, others under the 
Many fail agony of excruciating tortures. Some offered sacrifice 
wy^ t0 id i s — sacrificati ; some burned incense before the 

image of the Emperor — thurificati ; those who had the means 
purchased immunity to themselves in the form of a written cer- 
tificate or discharge, 29 and were called libellatici. Few of either 
Three °f these classes fell permanently from the Faith. Even 
0/jSfc/ those who in the hour of trial had shown a disgraceful 
Lapsed. eagerness to stand fair with the judges, availed them- 
selves of the earliest opportunity to retrace their steps. Their 
prevarication was caused by timidity and weakness ; and the 
great body of them became afterwards fervid and passionate, 
but, from the same defects of character which had brought about 
their fall, exceedingly troublesome penitents. 

On the other hand, it was the policy of the magistrates to 
break the spirits of the faithful, rather than to arouse them by 
Many tne spectacle of actual martyrdoms. The prisons, 

Mroivn therefore, were crowded with Confessors. Some of 
Prison. these displayed the insolence, self-conceit, and spirit 
of bravado which are natural accompaniments of untutored 
courage, and by which martyrdom, as we have seen, was so fre- 
quently disgraced. The persecution, in fact, had taken the 
Church at unawares. Few were prepared to suffer for the Name 
of Christ ; and in the few who were prepared, enthusiasm in some 

28 Cyprian complains [De Lapsis) that a very large number (maximus 
fratrum numerus) fell away at once. 

29 Some managed more quietly to get their names inserted in the register, 
as persons who had complied with the edict, without any request of their own 
to that effect; or sometimes the request was made, and the bribe paid, by 
friends of the parties without their knowledge. The Church discountenanced 
all such evasions. 



Carthage and S. Cyprian. 237 

cases became a substitute for faith. The tortures inflicted by 
the heathen, therefore, were not the only trial of the more gen- 
uine Confessors. They had to brace themselves for the final 
conflict amid the strife of tongues, and sometimes amid scenes 
of scandalous confusion. 30 The prisons were thronged with 
sympathizing friends. Priests and Deacons ministered to the 
inmates. Women kissed their chains. Penitents solicited their 
powerful intervention. Demagogues endeavored to make tools 
of them. Flattery and adulation enveloped them in a cloud of 
impenetrable self-delusion. Their Bishop, who watched 

Scandals. 

them from a distance, and who labored under the pecu- 
liar disadvantage of appearing to have avoided a conflict to which 
he incited others, had to adapt his exhortations to two distinct 
classes. One class, the most forward and influential, he rebuked 
and chastised. To do this, as he did, in the face of a busy 
faction, and against a popular sentiment which regarded the 
Confessor as nearer to God and consequently more powerful 
than the Bishop, required faith and courage of no ordinary 
kind. But there was another and large class which needed en- 
couragement. High spirits and pure faith do not always go 
together. The vivacity of mind, which some of the Two classes 
martyrs exhibited to a troublesome extent, it was neces- °f Mart y ys - 
sary to awaken and foster in others by every allowable expedi- 
ent. With rebukes, therefore, he mingled the most eloquent 
appeals. The more he chastised the insolence of the martyrs, 
the more he exalted the dignity of their calling. 31 His own 
character, the meanwhile, he had to leave a prey to the foul 
tongue of calumny and detraction. 

To the Priests and Deacons who ministered to the Confessors 
he gave minute directions, 32 urging them to prudence and self- 
restraint. They were to go to the prisons, for the administra- 

3° Epistol. vi. Pariss. 

3 1 His first letter to the Confessors is entirely of this character. It is, per- 
haps, enthusiastic in its language ; but a leader encouraging timid soldiers on 
the field of battle cannot afford to pick words. Epistol. lxxx. Pariss. 

3 2 Epistol. iv. Pariss. 



238 History of the Church. 

tion of the Sacrament, one Deacon and one Priest ax a time. 
No one should £0 oftener than was absolutely needed. 

Directions 

to the All crowding and excitement were to be carefully 

Clergy. ° . J 

avoided. Nothing was to be tolerated, in short, which 
should draw notice needlessly upon themselves, or exasperate 
the heathen. 

In the same prudent spirit he addressed himself to the case 
of those who had made themselves amenable to the discipline 
Treatment of the Church. A distinction was made between the 
°Lcipsed. three classes of those who had fallen. 33 The libel li 
Libeiu pdcis granted by some of the Martyrs, which in popu- 
Pacis. ] ar estimation were equivalent to a formal restoration 

to the privileges of communion, were to be accounted as things 
of naught. The Martyrs had no right to bestow such pardons. 
The lapsed of every sort, therefore, were to be shut off from the 
Table of the Lord, till they could plead their cause before the 
Clergy and Confessors and the whole body of the People. By 
this course Cyprian made many enemies to himself. But with 
equal disregard of personal considerations, he showed no favor 
t W o to that stricter party, not numerous, perhaps, but 

Parties. fanatical and highly influential, who were disposed to 
treat the lapsed as apostates from the Faith, leaving no door 
open for reconciliation. The Laity, in such cases, were as a 
general rule less tolerant than the Clergy. 34 Cyprian in some 
instances had not only to plead with them for mercy, but " to 
extort " mercy from them. Indeed, he was not a little censured 
for his facility in restoring men to communion whose professions 
of penitence were open to suspicion. But in all such points he 
was equal to his work. Much as he magnified the Church, and 
firmly as he believed that to be separate from the Church was to 

33 Sins after Baptism were atoned in the early Church by the Exomo- 
logesis, — a public confession, with tears, fastings, etc., of greater or less dura- 
tion, according to the nature of the offence. It was probably about the times 
of Decius that the distinction of Jlentes, audientes, genuflectentes, and con- 
sistcntes grew up. See Bingham's Antiquities, Book XVIII. c. i. 

34 S. Cypr. Ep. liv. 17, Pariss. 



Carthage and S. Cyprian, 239 

be separate from Christ, he was equally well assured that no 
peace with the Church would stand which was not sanctioned 
by the Gospel. It is the Lord alone who pardons ; the 

y . The Church 

Lord who is to be appeased. Men can act, m such, and the 

Gospel. 

matters, but as the instrument of the Lord. Any 
judgment, therefore, or any absolution apart from the Lord's 
revealed will, is necessarily good for nothing. 35 

These counsels and exhortations were not in all instances 
equally successful. One Lucian, a Confessor, addressed a letter 
to " Pope Cyprian," and through him to all Bishops, 

1 J r ... ° r A rrogance 

declaring that those in prison had give?i a full pardon of the 
to the lapsed, and requiring him and the Clergy gen- 
erally to respect their decision ; otherwise, it was plainly inti- 
mated, they would fall under the displeasure of the holy Martyrs. 
This seems sufficiently absurd. Its absurdity, however, did not 
make it the less dangerous to the peace of the Church. It was 
the beginning of troubles which continued long after the Mar- 
tyrs themselves had gone peaceably to their rest. For most of 
these men, both in Africa, and in Rome where their conduct had 
been equally objectionable, were brought at length to a more 
Christian frame of mind. Their long and cruel sufferings — 
many of them being slowly starved to death in prison — proved 
a means of grace to them. From a letter of the stout-hearted 
Lucian, written eight days after this punishment had begun, we 
learn that sixteen had died, and others were quietly 

' n J Their 

awaiting their end. It appears from the same epistle edifying 
that while he still felt it his duty to give peace to those 
who applied, the gift was coupled with the condition that the 
recipients should plead their cause and make confession before 
the Bishop. A letter from Caldonius, another Confessor, states 
still more clearly the necessity of compliance with this reason- 
able condition. 36 

But the real root of the mischief was among that party of 



35 S. Cyprian, De Lapsis, 16, 17. 

3 6 S. Cyprian. Op. Epist. xvi.-xxi. Pariss. 



240 History of the Church. 

Presbyters in Carthage, who had so strenuously opposed S. 
Cyprian's election. Of these the chief leader was one 

Novatus 

and his Novatus, 37 a Presbyter in bad odor, who just before 
the persecution had been accused of shocking crimes, 
and who consequently looked forward to peace and the resto^ 
ration of Cyprian with no particular favor. With him were 
associated the great body of the lapsed ; many of whom were 
Feuds- persons of wealth and consequence. Felicissimus, a 
factious layman, whom in some way or other he got to 
be made Deacon, was his most able coadjutor. By the intrigues 
of these men, the Carthaginian Church community were thrown 
into confusion. The prospect of Cyprian's return to the city 
inspired a general panic. When the Presbyters who remained 
faithful to their Bishop endeavored in compliance with his in- 
structions to carry out the laws, the result was a rebellion. 
Schism in Felicissimus and his party openly organized, and, pro- 
artiage. ceec j{ n g f rG m one wickedness to another, at length put 
Cyprian and his adherents under a ban of excommunication. 

By such acts, however,, they lost their hold upon that numer- 
ous party of the lapsed, who had acted with them more from 
Sei/-con- dislike of discipline than from any hearty belief in the 
demned. goodness of their cause. Cyprian promptly availed 
himself of the blunder they had committed. He declared them 
excommunicated, not by any act of his, but by their own volun- 
tary secession. It was no longer possible, then, to choose be- 
tween two parties in the Church. Men must cast in their lot 
with one or other of two separate communions. Under these 
circumstances many returned to the bosom of the Church. The 
Goes to rest having procured the ordination of Fortunatus, one 
Rome. Q £ t ^ e £ yfe p resD yters, as their Bishop, sent Felicissi- 
mus over to Rome ; where the dominant party, being long ago 

37 The moral character of this man is painted by S. Cyprian in the black- 
est colors ; so much so that many have questioned the truth of the portrait. 
It is characteristic, however, of times of great religious fervor, that the good 
are very good, and the bad are very bad. Medium characters do not flourish 
at such periods. Epistol. xlviii. Pariss. 



us 

wavers. 



Carthage and S. Cyprian. 241 

committed to the cause of an indulgent discipline, and being 
harassed at that period by the austere faction of Novatianus, 
might naturally be expected to receive them with some favor. 
At all events, Felicissimus was not sparing of threats, as well as 
protestations. And Cornelius, the Roman Bishop, was comeii 
not very decided. 38 He was, perhaps, unwilling to 
drive so influential a body as these African schismatics into the 
already powerful ranks of the opposition party in Rome. He 
hesitated for some time. But Cyprian was armed for all emer- 
gencies. Sounding one of his vigorous trumpet-blasts 39 into the 
ears of the wavering Roman Council, he brought them at length 
to a satisfactory decision. Felicissimus was rejected, and had 
thenceforward to look for countenance elsewhere. 

Novatus in like manner betook himself to Rome. There he 
fell in with the more famous Novatianus : a man of learning 
and orthodoxy, but of questionable morals, who, at Novat- 
the head of a faction consisting mainly of Confessors, **«*«*. 
had been a rival candidate to Cornelius for the Episcopal chair ; 
but failing of the election, had managed to procure consecra- 
tion in a surreptitious way. 40 This man stood on a higher and 
stronger platform than the Carthaginian, leaders. His puritan 
object, as he contended, was the purity of the Church. Scheme. 
He would keep her free from all contamination. Those who 
had fallen, therefore, in times of persecution, or those who had 
been guilty of any capital sin, were to remain suspended from 
communion till restored by Christ himself at the Day of final 
Judgment. With these views Novatus accorded more readily 

3 8 Epistol. liv. 2. 39 Cyp. Epistol. liv. Pariss. 

4° It is said that he invited three Bishops to his house, feasted, nattered, 
made them drunk, and so procured consecration. In this case, as in those of 
Felicissimus and Fortunatus, the mtmerosity of the Episcopate had an attend- 
ant evil, that ordination could sometimes be had in violation of the canons. 
The Bishops of the smaller Sees were not always shining lights. The metro- 
politan system, therefore, and the practice of consecrating Bishops, and some- 
times Presbyters, only in Council, was a necessary safeguard. In the case of 
Fortunatus, the consecration seems to have been performed by Privatus, an 
excommunicated Bishop. Epistol. liv. II. 
II 



242 Histovy of the Church. 

than might have been expected from his previous career. He 
t W o had doubtless learned by this time, from his experience 

as a party-leader, that discipline is as necessary to keep 
men out of the Church, as to keep them in. He readily coop- 
erated with Novatianus, therefore, in the erection of a new and 
severe system of ecclesiastical communion. 

The Sect was soon abandoned, to the great joy of the faith- 
ful both in Rome and Carthage, by most of the Confessors ; 

Cyprian, by his zealous but charitable letters to these 

In Rome Jl J 

and misguided men, having done much to dispel their 

Carthage. . , , 

delusion. 41 It gained recruits, however, in other parts 
of the world. Declaring open war upon Cyprian and Corne- 
lius, and spreading calumnies against them in all directions, the 
leaders plied briskly between Italy and North Africa, and in the 
latter country especially made a permanent lodgment. One 
Maximus seems to have acted as their Bishop in Carthage. But 
of him, as of Fortunatus, little beyond the name is known. 

Like Montanism, from the lees of which heresy it drew much 
of its sourness and strength, Novatianism had not a little in 
in other common with Catholic Christianity. The Puritan 

severity, which was its chief point of difference, could 
plead the sanction of high names in the Church, and was popular 
with a large party of orthodox believers, especially in Rome. 
It was one of the points, in fact, in which philosophy and 
religion were at variance. That all sins are equal, and that a 
grave man ought to be immovable** were Stoic maxims which had 
greater weight with such men as Tatian, Hippolytus, and Nova- 

tian than the evangelic precepts of mercy and forgive- 
of the ness. In spite of the taint of schism, therefore, the 

Schism. . 

followers of this Sect were numerous and respectable, 
both in the East and West : and there is reason to believe that, 
partly by virtue of rigorous discipline, partly by the close watch 

4 1 The letters of Cyprian, Cornelius, and the Confessors, are found in 
Cyprian's works. Epistol. xl. et ss. Pariss. 

4 2 S. Cypr. EpisioL lv. 13, — an admirable expose of the fallacies of this 
harsh philosophy. 



Carthage and S. Cyprian. 243 

which a small society can keep upon its members, and still more 
from the reformatory influence of new scenes, new associations, 
and a newly awakened sense of responsibility, they continued 
for some time an orderly, sedate, and highly influential body. 41 
Their creed was orthodox, except on the point of absolution. 
They indulged, however, an intensely bitter feeling against the 
Church. They regarded her as a synagogue of Jeze- Bitter 

bels, Balaams, and Iscariots ; and when they made . eehn &- 
proselytes from the "apostate" communion, they in all cases 
caused them to be rebaptized. 

On the other hand, the secession of so many troublesome 
men, with the lull of persecution which followed the death of 
Decius, gave Cyprian and his worthy colleague, Cor- 
nelius of Rome, an opportunity to gain ground in the restored, 

A.D. 251-253. 

restoration of Church discipline. Some of the lapsed 
were reconciled fully to the Church. Others were put on 
penance. Indulgence was provided for particular emergen- 
cies. 44 Numerous Councils were held ; and as disorders similar 
to those of Rome and Carthage were more or less prevalent in 
other portions of the Church, a discipline sufficiently uniform 
in its character was everywhere matured, systematized, and grad- 
ually established. 

43 Novatian stands high among orthodox writers. Acesius, a Novatian 
Bishop, was among those summoned by Constantine to the Council of Nice. 
See Socrates, Eccles. Hist. i. 10; v. 10. Novatian's Liber de Trinitate is 
to be found in Tertulliati 1 s Works, Nic. Rigalt. 1689. 

44 So long as the discipline of the Church remained a real thing, indul- 
gences — such as remission or shortening of the time of public penance — were 
indispensable. In later times discipline became a nullity ; and indulgences, 
being no longer applicable to their original use, were transferred to such things 
as absolving men from vows hastily assumed ; or by a most monstrous abuse, 
to the release of souls from purgatorial pains. In the early Church the term 
meant simply admission to communion (of those who seemed truly penitent) 
before the term of suspension from communion had canonically expired. 
The power of remission was with the Bishop and Presbyters; but in the African 
Church, and more or less in the Church generally, the people were allowed a 
voice in the matter. 



244 History of the Church. 



CHAPTER III. 

DECIAN TIMES. 

The Decian persecution, with the innumerable calamities that 
followed, extending as it did into all parts of the Roman 
a Great Empire, was a time of no ordinary terror : it was 

eminently an epoch in Church History, a crisis, a 
day of judgment; a season of such universal sifting and proba- 
tion as Christians had not known in any other period of their 
varied and calamitous experience. 

It has been mentioned incidentally in the preceding chapter 
of this Book, that the approach of persecution had been heralded 

by mysterious forebodings or presentiments upon the 

Warnings. J J . 

souls of men. In one of the many visions thus occur- 
ing, 1 " long before the arrival of the desolating storm," there 
was a voice from Heaven commanding the people to pray ', but 
when they began to utter their petitions their voices jangled and, 
their hearts were out of tune, and no true prayer arose because 

there was no harmony. In another dream, a venerable 

Dreams. 

Householder was seen sitting, with a young man on his 
right hand and another on his left. The one on the right sat 
grave and pensive, and not without a shade of sorrowful indig- 
nation. The other on the left was triumphant and exultant; 
and held in his hand a net, which with a wanton and wicked 
leer he threatened continually to cast over the heads of the 
bystanders. Dreams of this kind were but echoes of waking 
thoughts, and belonged to healthy minds like that of S. Cyprian. 
They sprang from a deep conviction of some judgment needed ; 

1 S. Cypr. Epistol. vii. Pariss. 



Dec i an Times. 245 

they pointed to nothing more than some judgment coming. 
But when the expected crisis had actually arrived, the 

, J The coming 

terrors of the times naturally hurried the mind forward of the 

. Lord. 

from particular passing judgments to that great and 
anti-typal judgment which is to be the end of all. The near- 
ness of the Lord's coming was at all times vividly realized by the 
faith of the early Church. The very posture of their worship, 
*is they stood with head erect, arms outstretched, and eyes look- 
ing eagerly forward, was a constant reminder to them of this 
awful expectation. 2 But in times of such complicated horrors an 
those under Decius and his successors, " when the very signs ••* 
Martyrs scandalized the Church j when even Confes- the Ckurck > 
sion in some cases was but a swelling, irreverential, and insolent 
bravado ; when torments in other cases were torments without 
end, without issue, without solace, — torments which kept the 
crown at a tantalizing distance, making the heart sick while 
they excruciated the body, so that if any one escaped and 
reaped the reward of glory, it was not by termination of the 
torture, but by mere alacrity in dying;" 3 when, in the civil 
world, "every instant of time was marked, every in the 
province of the Roman world was afflicted, by barbar- ***** 

ous invaders and military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed 
to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution ; " when, 
in the natural world, "there were inundations, earth- . , 

i7i the 

quakes, preternatural darkness, with a long and gen- Natural 
eral famine, and a furious plague, depopulating whole 
towns, and consuming according to a moderate calculation the 
moiety of the human species:" 4 at such periods it is not 
wonderful that the common fear or hope, which ever it might 
be, became occasionally an enthusiastic and perhaps dangerous 
delusion. 

Yet, even in the worst cases, this confident expectation of 

2 See the figures of " praying men and women," in Perret, Cat e combes de 
Rome, etc. 

3 S. Cypr. Epistol. vii. Pariss. 

4 Gibbon's Decline and Fall, etc. vol. i. ch. x. 



2 46 History of the Church. 

the end was far less irrational than has sometimes been pre- 
Early tended. A mere fatalist may sneer at such a faith. 5 
Views**" ^ ma y awaken the smiles of those who suppose the 
justified. wor ld to be governed only by mathematically fixed 
laws. But the early Christian conceived of no such mechan- 
ism of fate. He had faith in a living God. He believed 
in One who hears and answers prayer. But if the supreme 
Governor and Controller really answers prayer, it follows thai 
the duration of human life, the vicissitudes of empire, the exist- 
ence of the world, the chances and changes of all earthly things, 
are in the strictest sense of the word precarious or contingent : 
the shadow of final doom mav be brought backward or carried 
forward on the dial-plate of time, with a freedom as absolute, 
as to a mere fatalist philosophy it is inconceivable and impos- 
sible. Jonah was a true prophet, though Nineveh's forty days 
passed without witnessing its fall. 

The early Christian, indeed, did not theorize as yet upon this 

momentous subject. He believed, as the Scriptures taught him, 

in a Saviour and a ]udge always near at hand. He 

The Judge ? 

ahvays was on the lookout for a Judgment surely coming, ever 

near. . 

impending, yet capable ol suspension or even of pro- 
tracted, and indefinite delay. The consequence was that with 
each successive appearance of the portents of that Judgment, 
he lifted up his head; with a mixed feeling, like that of S. Paul 
when he was in a strait betwixt two wishes, 6 he partly hoped and 
prayed for it, yet, as taught by the Church in her petitions pro 
mora finis, did his utmost by prayer and penitence to stay or to 
Seeming avert it; and so, when the "signs" seemed to fail, 
{h^slgn'fof when a lesser crisis passed without manifesting the 
judgment. g reat anc [ consummating Judgment, he was in no way 
disappointed, nor was his faith at all shaken. A man, who having 

5 Gibbon sneers impartially at the common belief of the Church, and at 
the promise, on which that belief was founded. The promise was uttered, 
however, not to inform men of the time when judgment should come, but that 
they might be always on the lookout for that time. S. Matt. xxv. 13. 

6 Philipp. i. 23, 24. 



Decian Times. 247 

never seen the sunshine, yet confidently expects it, might reason- 
ably mistake the dawn for the complete and perfect day. One 
who has never witnessed death, might anticipate its approach in 
each momentary swoon. On the same principle, the believer of 
early times was not irrational in looking upon each successive 
trial as a fulfilment of Prophecy ; he was only mistaken as to the 
finality of that fulfilment. He acted merely on that principle 
of common-sense, by which knowing the end to be certain 
somewhere, yet not knowing where, we look for it as confidently 
at the turn of along lane, as at its actual termination. 

To this it may be added, that the early Christian did not 
base his hope or fear upon arithmetical calculations. He was 
influenced more by "the signs of the times." 7 As to 

Numbers 

the numbers of days or months or years in the Ian- vhwedas 

Symbols. 

guage of Prophecy, he regarded them as symbols of 
God's time, not rigid definitions. But it is of the nature of 
symbols — even, it may be said, of mathematical symbols, and 
therefore much more of spiritual — that they admit within their 
range an almost infinite variety of particular applications. 

But to return from this digression : the persecution under 
Decius was common to all the Churches. Among its princi- 
pal Martyrs was Alexander, the venerable Bishop of particular 
Jerusalem. Having borne his testimony at the tri- Martyrs. 
bunal, he was tortured and thrown into prison, where he peace- 
fully expired. Babylas, 8 Bishop of Antioch, won his crown in 
like manner. Eudsemon, Bishop of Smyrna, lapsed from the 
Faith ; but Pionius, one of his Presbyters, was crucified and burnt. 
In Ephesus, Maximus was one of the earliest victims. In all 
places, many fled into the rural districts, or took refuge in caves 
and solitary wilds. Among these were seven youths of The Sevsn 
Ephesus, whose bodies, found many years after in a slee P ers - 
cavern, gave rise to the celebrated legend of the Seven Sleepers. 

7 Diem ultimum et occultum, nee ulli prater Patri notum, et tamen 
ngnis atque portentis, et concussionibus elementorum . . . praenotatum. 
Tertul. De Res. Carnis, 22 ; Philastr. De Hceres. cvii. 

8 Cave's Lives of the Fathers, vol. i. 



248 History of the Church. 

S. Gregory, the renowned Bishop of Neo-Caesarea in Pontns, 
surnamed Thaumaturgus for his wonderful works, was admon- 
Gregory ished by a vision to decline the persecution, and 
^Vonder- retired with the majority of his flock into a wilderness. 
worker. j^ e wag a disciple f Origen, in whose school at 
Caesarea he studied for five years, and for whom he ever after- 
wards retained the profoundest veneration. The miracles 
related of him were committed to writing about a century after 
his decease by Gregory of Nyssa, and seem to have been col- 
lected chiefly from the memory of the aged grandmother of the 
latter. 9 The tradition of them, therefore, had abundance of 
fii s time to grow. His presence, it is said, dispossessed 

Miracles. a i ieat } ien s hrine of the daemon that held it ; he stayed 
by his prayers a pestilence that broke out among the people of 
Neo-Caesarea ; he quelled the overflowing of the river Lycus ; 
when he was searched for in the woods, in which he and his 
companions were hidden during the persecution, he was mirac- 
ulously veiled from the eyes of the officers. In consequence of 
these and similar wonders, he was called among the Gentiles a 
second Moses. His greatest work, that he found but seventeen 
Christians in his diocese when appointed to it, and left but 
seventeen unconverted heathen, rests, it is said, upon his dying 
testimony. Stories of this kind require to be supported by con- 
temporaneous witnesses. That Gregory, however, was a man 
His of prayer and of extraordinary gifts, and that a pecu- 

Success. j- ar x)ivine blessing rested upon his labors, seems to 
have been the belief of the whole early Church ; a belief the 
more entitled to credit, that, belonging as he did to the school 
of an excommunicated teacher, 10 he was hardly the person that 
would have been selected to make a hero of, unless he had had 

9 He died about the year 270, or a little after. See Cave's Lives of the 
Fathers, vol. i. ; and Greg. Nyss. in Vit. Greg. Thaum. 

10 His own orthodoxy has been impeached ; and is defensible only on the 
ground that in his controversy with ^lian he spoke ov Soy/uariKoyc^ o.^' 
ayovMJTUitic; ; using words in the heat of disputation which are not to be 
taken to the letter. 



Decian Times. 249 

more than a common claim to such distinction. After the per- 
secution was over, he caused the festivals of the martyrs to be 
celebrated with increased solemnity; and many heathen there- 
by were attracted to the Church. 

In Alexandria, Dionysius the Great, another of Origen's dis- 
ciples, was snatched from martyrdom by the loving officiousness 
of his friends. His record of his escape, and his testi- 

Dionysuts 

mony to the courage and cruel sufferings of the mar- of Alex- 
andria. 
tyrs, have been preserved in the pages of Eusebius. 11 

The persecution, it appears, did not begin as elsewhere with the 

action of the Emperor. It was an outbreak of popular fanaticism 

excited by a man who pretended to be a prophet, and preceded 

the imperial edict by about one year. It raged with such fury 

that Alexandria had the appearance of a city taken by storm. 

But in Egypt, as elsewhere, innumerable believers sought 

safety in retreat. Some fled' into the desert ; and many of 

these, among whom the aged Bishop of Cheraemon 

° ± Anchorites. 

and his wife are particularly mentioned, were never 
heard of more. Some were captured by predatory tribes. The 
greater part perished of hunger and exposure. The pious feel- 
ing that God was everywhere, as near to the believer 
in solitude as in the assemblies of the faithful ; that every- 

... where. 

the lack of sacraments and priestly ministrations 
would prove no loss, where the living sacrifice of a contrite 
heart and humble spirit was faithfully presented : 12 the belief, in 
short, that in every place there could be a true and spiritual 
worship, led many of these wanderers to persist in their retreat. 
Thus, while the general tendency of the Church was towards 
the ideal of social or corporate religion, there sprang up a 
strong propulsion towards the opposite extreme. The princi- 
ple of individualism was mightily asserted. Paulus, a youth 
of twenty-three years of age, afterwards known as 
" prince of the anchorites," found solitude so refresh- and Social 

■ . -ii Religion. 

ing that he remained a contented dweller in the wilder- 
ness to the venerable age of one hundred and thirteen years. 

11 Euseb. Eccles. History, vi. 40-42. I2 S. Cypr. Epistol. lxxvi. 4. 
II* 



25P History of the Church. 

This impulse to hermit-life was the beginning of a great and 
living movement. Involving maxims remarkably at variance 
with what have been called the hierarchical tendencies of that 
day, it is wonderful that Church rulers regarded it with so much 
favor as they did. It shows a liberality, on their part, and a 
breadth and facility of charitable construction, for which in 
modern times they have received hardly sufficient credit. 13 

In Asia Proper, Lycia, Pamphylia, Bithynia, Capadocia, 
Crete, Cyprus, Gaul, there were numerous victims. The army, 
Military also, as was common in persecutions, presented its 
irtyrs quota of illustrious witnesses. On one occasion, when 
a Christian of Alexandria stood trembling before the judge and 
seemed to waver in his confession, the soldiers who stood 
around indignantly frowned upon him, 14 and then by a sudden 
impulse ran up to the tribunal and declared themselves be- 
lievers. 

As already intimated, the persecution, ceasing for awhile 

on the death of Decius, was followed by a great and terrible 

plague. Such pestilences are common in ancient his- 

Great * ° x 

Plague, tory, and so far as their horrors are concerned, noth- 

A.D. 252. 

ing can be added to the eloquence and pathos of 
contemporary descriptions. But there is one feature of such 
visitations, which none of the classic writers seem ever to have 
witnessed. The heathen were courageous against flesh and 
blood. Against the ghostly presence of the pestilence that 
walketh in darkness they were utterly impotent No sense of 
honor, no ties of blood, no obligations of religion could nerve 

them to their duty. Those smitten by the destroyer 
among the were left uncared for while living, and unburied when 

dead. The claims of humanity were forgotten. All 
who had any place to flee to consulted their own safety and 
fled. Those who alone remained were either poverty-stricken 
wretches that could not get away, or fiends in human shape 
who battened upon the common misery, and hovered like 

r 3 The subject of this paragraph is further treated in chap. vi. of this Book, 
towards the end. ^Euseb. vi. 41. 



Decian Times. 2 5 1 

plague-flies around the couches of the dying and the dead. 
Such was the spectacle that heathenism presented. Christianity 
first taught men to struggle manfully and successfully with the 
invisible foe. While the idolaters were scattering in all direc- 
tions in irremediable panic, S. Cyprian in Carthage, christian 
S. Dionysius in Alexandria, and other holy men in Coura ? e - 
many other places, were rallying the faithful to a warfare more 
heroic, and a triumph more truly glorious, than poet or his- 
torian had ever as yet recorded. 

In Alexandria, the heathen, considering the pestilence more 
terrific than any other terror and more afflictive than any other 
affliction, an evil beyond all hope, 15 resigned them- piaguein 
selves to it in uncontrollable dismay. Such panics Alexandria - 
added of course to the number of the victims. The Christians, 
now disciplined by persecution, struggled more courageously 
and in consequence suffered less. They had learned of late to 
take pleasure in tribulations. As no spot in Egypt had been a 
stranger to their sorrows, so none was left unhallowed by tokens 
of the joy of their festival occasions. To men thus trained 
to cheerfulness of spirit, the pestilence came, "no less than 
other events, as a school of discipline and probation." It gave 
them an opportunity to become, in a sense not realized before, 
" the off-scourings of all men." Regarding death in Care y 
such a cause "as little inferior to martyrdom," they the Dead - 
paid every possible attention to " the bodies of the saints ; they 
laid them on their bosoms, purged their eyes, closed their 
mouths, composed their limbs, prepared them decently for 
burial, and calmly awaited the time when they themselves 
should receive the same kind offices from others." Similar 
charities were extended to the heathen. And though 

Evil 

the latter were disposed at first to attribute the plague overcome 

t^ . . ... .-,, . , with Good. 

to Divine anger against the Christians, and therefore 
to renew the persecution, yet in time their evil was overcome 
with good, and the chastened Church once more gained favoi 
with her foes. 

*5 Euseb. vii. 22. 



252 History of the Church. 

In Carthage, Cyprian awakened the same spirit by trumpet- 
blasts of no uncertain sound. " The Kingdom of God, beloved, 
Cyprian's is rapidly approaching. Terror is everywhere. Lo ! 
Appeals. t | ie p r j son _ wa n s are shaking, the floods are rising, the 
tempest is descending, the world, old and weary, is nodding to its 
fall. But as the world passes away, the reward of life and glory 
is brought nearer to us. Paradise, once forfeited but now recov- 
ered, is opening to our view." 16 By such like exhortations he 
New phase enlisted the martyr-spirit, now chastened and purified, 
°Mart yr i n a work more charitable and useful, though it was 
spint. hard to persuade the Africans that it was also more 
glorious than martyrdom itself. He enlarged particularly on 
their duty to the heathen. The persecution had been an excel- 
lent school of patience. The pestilence could teach them a 
lesson of beneficence and mercy. It was an opportunity, in 
short, to show themselves children of Him who maketh His sun 
to rise on the evil and on the good, 17 and sendeth rain on the 
just and on the unjust. 

The plague raged everywhere, and everywhere the Christians 
pursued the same course. The wars, famines, and disorders which 
ivarsand preceded or accompanied this calamity appealed in 
Famines. another form t0 the c harity of the faithful. The Nu- 
midian Church, impoverished by Barbarian invaders, was unable 
to redeem its members taken captive. The Carthaginians, though 
in little better plight, came up generously to their aid; and, 
having made a collection of about one hundred thousand ses- 
tertia, 18 sent it with a list of the names of the donors, that these 
might be duly remembered in the prayers of the grateful recipi- 
christian en ts of their bounty. This was done " not as a matter 
Chanty. Q f c h ar ity, but rather of religious obligation " ; for a 
member of Christ taken captive was regarded as " God's temple 
in danger of defilement." 19 In other parts of the Empire there 

16 S. Cyprian. De Mortalitate. x ? Vit. S. Cypr. per Pontium Diac. c. 9. 
18 About four thousand dollars ; considering, however, the greater value 
of money in those days, it was equivalent to a much larger sum. 
J 9 S. Cyprian. Epistol. lix. Pariss. 



Decian Times. 253 

were similar claims similarly met. The terrible Goths, in bat- 
tling with whom Decius and his army ignominiously 
perished -, 20 the adventurous Franks, whose ravages ex- 
tended from the Rhine to the south of Spain and the provinces 
of Mauritania; the Alemanni, who on the death of Decius 
flouted their victorious banners in the face of the proud mistress 
of the world ; and finally the Persians, who eventually pene- 
trated to Antioch and sacked the cities of Asia Minor : all these 
were making prisoners on every side ; and to redeem her share 
of the captives was a formidable addition to the bur- Ransom of 
dens of the Church. On the other hand, the light of Catti ™ s - 
the Gospel was not lost in the darkness of Barbarian invasion. 
The Christian captives in many cases proved to be truly " am- 
bassadors in bonds." 

Under Gallus, the successor of Decius, the persecution was 
renewed ; and after a respite of three or four years, occasioned 
by his death, it was taken up again in a more system- Gaiius, 
atic way and with greater determination by the Empe- A - D - 2 5 T - 2 53- 
ror Valerian. 21 In preparation for these new trials, valerian, 
Cyprian, with the concurrence of his Council, granted A - D - 2 53- 2 S9- 
an indulgence to the lapsed, remitting what remained Ninth Per- 
of their term of public penance. In Rome, Carthage, secutl0n - 
and Antioch, Novatianism at this period was formally con- 
demned. 

Cornelius the Roman Bishop suffered martyrdom under 
Gallus. About the same time Origen was released from the 
burden of a troubled and laborious existence : a man 

Cornelius 

whose indefatigable industry during life was rivalled andLudus, 
only by the wretched tenacity of hatred, which in less 
charitable ages that came after dogged his memory and his name. 
His sufferings in the Decian times were of the most sufferings 
fearful description. For many days, in the deepest °f ° ri s en - 
recesses of a prison, his diminutive and spare frame was stretched 

20 See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. x. 

21 See chap. iv. of this Book. 



254 History of the Church. 

to the distance of four holes on the rack, 22 while the boon of 
dying for the Faith was cruelly denied him. He bore up nobly 
against all the efforts to subdue his spirit ; but not long after his 
release he sank under the injuries he had received in prison. 
Stephen, Lucius, the successor of Cornelius, was another martyr 
a.d.253. f f-hjg period. After a month's vacancy of his See, 
Stephen, a true Roman in policy and in birth, was elected into 
his place. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ROME AND THE WEST. 



The Roman Church, first planted, it is probable, by some of the 

Pentecostal converts, but watered by the doctrine and blood of 

S. Peter 1 and S. Paul, had already at the beginning of 

Origin of , 

Roman the second century acquired a fame proportioned to 
the dignity of the place and its pilgrimage. 2 To S. 
Ignatius it was venerable as "presiding in the seat of the 
Romans. ' ' A more solid title to his respect was its forwardness 
in the grace of charity; 3 of which evangelic virtue the fraternal 
epistle, written in its name by S. Clement to the disorderly 
Corinthians, was an early and well-known example. 

22 Euseb. vi. 39 ; Huettii, Origeniana, lib. i. cap. iv. Origen speaks of 
his own body as corptisculum, — to gco/u&tiov. The fifth hole on the rack was 
the measurement of a man of ordinaiy size. Origen's being stretched, there- 
fore, only to the fourth is a proof of his diminutive stature. 

1 According to Lactantius, S. Peter came to Rome during the reign of 
Nero, twenty-five years after the Ascension, or A.d. 58 : a much more probable 
account than the story of his journey thither just after the conversion of Cor- 
nelius. See Lactant. De Mort. Persecute with note of Baluz. 

2 'H EKK^fjaia rov Qeov tj TtapoiKovaa 'Fujuyv — quae Romx peregrmatur — 
was the usual title. 

3 S. Ignat. Ep. ad Roman. The phrase, irpoKadtj/uivTi rf/q ayairris, is trans- 
lated by some " presiding over the Agape," i. e., as Dollinger renders it, "the 



Rome and the West. 255 

The order of succession of its first Bishops, Linus, Cletus, 
and Clemens, has been much disputed. 4 It is gen- First 

erally conceded that Clement was one of the three, ^ ops. 
and died in exile somewhere about the end of the first century. 

Through the second century the Church continued to in- 
crease, though chiefly among the Hellenic part of the popula- 
tion. 5 Its position, however, in the great queen city Eminent 
of the world gave it potiorem principalitatemf as S. 
Irenaeus expressed it ; enabling it to take the lead in all matters 
in which a leader was required, and making it a centre of tradi- 
tions from every quarter, — a rallying-point to the Gentile, as 
Jerusalem for awhile had been to the Jewish Christians. It was 
distinguished for missionary zeal, and for readiness to Mission- 
give assistance to feebler Churches. 7 One fruit of this ary ' ZeaL 
we have seen in that vigorous scion, the Church of Africa Pro- 
consularis : a Church more intensely Latin, and destined to exert 
a greater influence upon the intellectual tone of Latin Christi- 
anity, than the great mother See itself. Hence, to Africa, Rome 
was whaf Corinth was to Achaia, or Ephesus to Asia, Relation to 
auctoritatas pr&sto : the most accessible living witness art age ' 
to apostolic tradition. In the eyes of Tertullian and S. Cyprian, 

covenant of love," namely, the "whole Church." The context is against 
any such rendering. It may be here observed that, in the opening of his 
Epistles to the Romans and to the Ephesians, S. Ignatius stretches language 
to the utmost for terms of praise. If, therefore, Rome had possessed any such 
supremacy as modern Rome contends for, Ignatius would not have omitted it, 
nor would he have lacked suitable language in which to express it. See Pair. 
Apostol. Oxon. 1838. 

4 Pearson. Op. Posthuma : Gies. $ 34, n. 10. The order of succession 
here given has the authority of Irenaeus apud Euseb. Eccles. Hist. v. 6. 
Observe, that while the ancients universally ascribe the foundation of the Epis- 
copate of Rome to S. Peter and S. Paul, Linus is usually spoken of as the first 
Bishop proper. See Euseb. iv. 1 ; Barrow, on the Supremacy , supp. 3, 4, etc. 

5 Milman's Latin Christianity. 

6 This and similar expressions are satisfactorily explained in Gieseler, 
$51, n. 10, etc. See also two excellent notes on the subject in the Oxford 
translation of Tertullian, vol. i. p. 470; also Forbesii, Instructiones Historico- 
theologicce, op. torn. ii. lib. xv. xvi. 7 Euseb. iv. 23. 



256 History of the Church. 

it was a starting-point of the unity of the priesthood : 8 a far- 
spreading root of Catholic Religion. 

Victor, an African by birth, though probably of Roman 

parentage, was the first who showed a disposition to pervert 

this honorable influence into an encroachment upon 

A ttempt r 

of victor, the freedom of other Churches. He was rebuked, 

A.D. 196. 

however, by S. Irenseus, and the paschal question, 9 in 
which he interfered, remained unsettled till finally disposed of 
by the general Council at Nicsea. 

But Rome was not merely a centre ; it was, as Tacitus im- 

Resortof plies, a sewer of the world; and falsehood and corrup- 

tlcs ' tion floated thither as readily as truth. 

Simon Magus, it is said, obtained his chief triumphs there, 

and was there defeated by S. Peter. Marcion, Valentinus, and 

other Gnostic leaders, found a hearing there. At a 

Simon, 

Marcion, somewhat later period, Montanus and the new proph- 

and others. 

ets gained an influence for awhile over Victor himself; 
and thence spread their doctrine, rife with the seeds of schism, 
through all the Churches of the West. The reaction against 
Praxeas Montanism filled the city with another swarm of 
and others. h ere f-i cs# Praxeas, Theodotus, Artemon, the disciples 
of Noetus, Sabellius, and the obscure Judaizing faction which 

8 In the interpretation of the language of these African Fathers, a mistake 
is sometimes made by inserting the definite article when the context and gen- 
eral sense require the indefinite. Rome, or Jerusalem, or any other apostolic 
Church could be called matrix religio?tis catholicce, etc. ; that is, a source, a 
root. For the claims of Jerusalem, see Gieseler, \ 94, nn. 40, 41. In the 
Oratio pro Fidelibus, in-the Apostol. Constitutions, the Bishop of Jerusalem is 
prayed for first, then the Bishops of Rome and Antioch. As to the authority 
of Rome in the West, De Marca [De Concord. Sacerdot. et Imper. vii. 1) 
abundantly proves the following proposition : " The ancient Church appointed 
Bishops over the chief cities of every region. The supreme power was given 
to the Metropolitan in Council with his brother Bishops. Therefore the 
ecclesiastical decisions of each province were of supreme authority and could 
not be appealed from." This opinion is combated, but to very little purpose, 
by Schelstrate (Eccles. Afric. sub Primat. etc.). For the question of the 
Roman Patriarchate, see Palmer, on the Church, part vii. ch. vii ; Bingham's 
Antiquities, ix. v. I. 9 Book II. ch. ix. 



Rome and the West. 257 

hatched the famous Clementina™ had each their day of pros- 
perity in Rome ; and, if we are to credit the statements of 
Hippolytus, the taint of heresy and evil living struck deep into 
the characters of the Bishops Zephyrinus and Callistus. 

Zephyrinus, it is said," was ignorant of sacred learning — 
totally illiterate, in fact ; and therefore surrendered himself to 
the guidance of the cunning flatterer Callistus. This zephyrinus, 
latter had been a slave ; then a species of banker, AD ' 2 ° 3 " 
doing business largely on the credit of an indulgent master ; 
then a defaulter ; and finally a volunteer for martyrdom, having 
put himself in this way of restoring his broken credit by dis- 
turbing public worship in a Jewish Synagogue on the Sabbath. 
For this last offence he was scourged by order of the Prefect of 
the City, and banished to the Sardinian mines. Afterwards 
Marcia, the mistress of Commodus, who, as we have Kindt ess 
seen, was favorable to the Church, procured an edict °f Maicia - 
from the Emperor for the recall of the Christian exiles ; and 
Callistus, though expressly excepted from the benefit of the 
decree, managed in some way or other to return with the rest. 
All this happened during the pontificate of Victor. When 
Zephyrinus succeeded to the episcopal chair, he saw in Callistus 
a useful coadjutor in the work of "oppressing the Clergy " ; 
put him in charge of the Cemetery, a post of no little honor ; 
and made him his adviser and confidential friend. Under his 
guidance the Bishop, it is said, played a double part. 

Disszmula- 

While he seemed to lend an ear to the admonitions of Hon of the 

Bishop. 

Hippolytus and the orthodox side, he secretly favored 

the followers of the heretic Noetus. But on this latter point 

there was no little difference of ooinion among the Romans. 

10 See Gies. \ 58 ; and Book II. ch. vii. of this History. 

11 1 merely abridge the lively narrative of Hippolytus : Refut. Omn. 
Hceres. ix. 12; an account valuable for the insight it gives into the state of 
parties. As to the facts of the case, there is probably some exaggeration. 
See Bunsen's Hippolytus ; Chr. Wordsworth's Church of Rome in the Third 
Century, with reference to Hippolytus ; and Dollinger, Hippolytus u. Kal- 
list us. 



258 History of the Church. 

Hippolytus and his friends not only failed to persuade others 
that their Bishop was a heretic and a dissembler, but 

Ditheists. 

soon found themselves in a hopeless minority, under 
the nickname of Ditheists™ or believers in two Gods. 

Callistus succeeded Zephyrinus, and Hippolytus was placed 
CaiUstus, m a still more uncomfortable position. Sabellius, in- 
deed, was excommunicated ; — a kind of peace-offering, 
it was thought, to the austere Bishop of Porto. But Callistus 
Sabeiiius soon showed a leaning to some other shade of the Pa- 
e ' tripassian heresy. To this he added lax views of dis- 
cipline, with novel and high assumptions of sacerdotal power. 
Laxity There was no sin, he said, that he had not power to 
imputed. rem i t# Not even for mortal sins could a Bishop be 
deposed from his office. Not only might married men, but 
even the twice or thrice married, be admitted to Holy Orders ; 
and those already in Orders might marry without sin. When 
Hippolytus remonstrated against all this, he received only the 
justified by sharp answer of the Apostle, "Who art thou that 
Callistus. j u dgest another man's servant ? " Or, if that did not 
suffice him, he was reminded of "the wheat and tares which 
grow up together until the harvest "; or of " the net that draws 
in fish both bad and good"; or of "the Ark in which clean 
and unclean took refuge together"; or, in short, of "many 
other things which Callistus interpreted in like manner." 

The consequence was, according to Hippolytus, that people 
were quite bewitched with "the sorcerer" Callistus; and, 
His views though secret crimes and incredible immoralities 13 
popular. were supposed to be encouraged by him, yet "many 
clung to him from a conviction that affairs were in the main 
well managed." Having only one side of the story, and that 
from a witness boiling over with personal and theological resent- 

12 He taught, in other words, the Divinity of the Son ; but, in maintain- 
ing His Personality, made Him subordinate to the Father. 

J 3 He is said to have connived at concubinage with slaves, child-murder, 
and the like, on the part of wealthy Roman ladies : a charge which shows, at 
least, what sort of scandals could be circulated and believed. 



Rome and the West. 259 

ment, we are not in a position to judge, at the present day, how- 
far they were mistaken in this conclusion. 

The truth would seem to be, both from the testimony of 
Hippolytus and from Tertullian's 14 angry invectives, Rome a 
that Rome at that period was a great battle-ground ground. 
of conflicting principles. Two elements, especially, Two 

contended for the mastery there. The Greek spirit, Elements. 
versatile, subtle, keen in doctrinal disputation, and somewhat 
impracticable, found its meet exponent in Hippolytus and his 
party. Against this, the Latin spirit, the genius loci, more prac- 
tical, more politic, and in the nicer points of divinity more 
ready to temporize, was beginning to make head. As this latter 
temper prevailed, the result was a sort of Fabian policy Fabian 
in the polemics of the day : a slowness of decision, Policy. 
and perhaps of apprehension, 15 with regard to conflicting theo- 
ries, which gave Rome in the long run a practical advantage. 
The more impetuous Greeks might chafe at the temporary favor 
shown to Marcion, that " first-born of the devil," as he was 
called by S. Polycarp ; or to Montanus, Praxeas, Noetus, and 
other innovators : but this very chafing enhanced the value of 
the decision when at length it came, and caused it to be received 
with more heartfelt satisfaction. 

In questions of discipline, the same practical turn of mind 
disposed the mass of the Roman Clergy to an indulgent course 
and the stricter party, more or less imbued with Mon- Discipline 
tanistic or Encratite notions, fell into the position of went. 
a disappointed faction. The vilest sinners, it was complained, 
might hope for "the Church's peace." The treatment Question 
of backsliders, in fact, was becoming the great ques- °^ the Day ' 
tion of the day. Many of the Bishops, especially in North 
Africa, 16 were disposed to shut the door of forgiveness, at least 

x 4 De Pudicitia, 21, 22 ; which invectives, however, may have been aimed 
at the Bishops generally, and not (as sometimes thought) at Zephyrinus in 
particular. 

j s Before Tertullian framed a religious language for the West, it was not 
easy to express in Latin the nicer points of the Greek theology. 

16 So says S. Cyprian, Epistol. lv. ad Anionianum ; his own practice, 



260 History of the Church. 

against adulterers and other scandalous offenders. But Zephyri- 
Extreme nus and Callistus offered pardon to all. Their facility 

in this respect, and their readiness to admit to com- 
munion, seemed hardly to fall short of that of the Elxaite sect, 
— a sort of Anabaptists then flourishing in Rome, 17 who offered a 
new immersion to all who professed repentance, and promised 
in each immersion a plenary absolution of bygone sins. Be- 
tween the captivating laxity of heretics of this kind, and the 
plausible severity of such men as Hippolytus, it was by no 
means easy to steer a just middle course. 

The Decian persecution, and the quarrels about discipline 
Decian that sprang from it, made an epoch, as we have seen, 
Epoc ' in the history of North Africa : it had an equal influ- 
ence upon the development and the destinies of the Roman 
Church. 

In both Churches there was a chronic opposition to the 
ruling party. In Carthage, this opposition maintained a doc- 
Romeand trine of almost indiscriminate indulgence, against the 
Carthage. severer v j ew s of S. Cyprian. In Rome, it appeared, 
as already stated, under an opposite guise. But as the Cartha- 
ginian Novatus and the Roman Novatianus played into each 
other's hands, and united on a ground of inexorable severity to 

the lapsed, so Cyprian and Cornelius stood together on 
and that middle ground of rigor tempered by a moderate 

use of the power of indulgence, which became, after 
many struggles, the general policy of the Church. This league 
between the two great leaders of Western Christianity was 
doubtless beneficial to them both. The bias towards austerity, 

which Cyprian had inherited from his master Ter- 

tullian, and that towards laxity which characterized 
the Clergy of the Roman Church, were moderated to a wise 
and religious mean. 

The accession of Stephen, a period to which we have been 

however, was after the full term of penance, public confession being made, 
to admit all offenders to communion. 
r 7 See Book II. ch. vii. 



Rome and the West. 261 

conducted by the thread of African Church History, interrupted 
this happy concord between the two Churches, and Stephen, 
added another to the many painful disputes by which A,D " 253# 
Christendom was already so scandalously divided. 

It was the question of the validity of baptism administered 
by heretics. Cyprian took the ground previously maintained 
by the Council under Agrippinus, that as the Church Baptism by 
alone has authority to baptize, no true baptism could Heretlcs - 
be given out of the Church pale. Stephen commanded that 
converts from all sects should be received, as the sects re- 
ceived from one another, by penance only, with the imposition 
of hands. 18 The Name of Christ, he argued, was powerful 
enough to give validity to any baptism in which it was invoked. 
In addition to this he pleaded the authority of custom. It is 
probable enough that the custom of many Churches, and per- 
haps of a majority of them, was such as he alleged. But when 
he proceeded, in the spirit of his predecessor, Victor, vi i ence / 
to make that custom a universal law, neither North Stephen. 
Africa nor the East was prepared to accede to any such preten- 
sions. Supported by Alexandria ; 19 by a letter from Firmilianus, 
the learned Bishop of Cappadocian Caesarea, written in behalf 
of many other Eastern prelates ; and by the harmonious action 

18 Cyprian. Epist. 73, Pariss. " On this question there were three views 
in the early Church : ( 1 ) that of the early African Church and of Asia Minor, 
in the time of Firmilian, which rejected all baptism out of the Church, schis- 
matical as well as heretical ; (2) that of the Greek Church generally, which 
accepted schismatical but rejected heretical baptism; (3) that first mentioned 
by Stephen, Bishop of Rome, who accepted all baptism, even of heretics, 
which had been given in the Name of the Trinity." See a learned note to 
the Oxford translation of Tertullian, vol. i. p. 280. It has been much dis- 
puted, however, whether Stephen did not take the position that the Name of 
Christ, without any mention of the other Persons of the Trinity, was enough 
for a valid baptism. S. Cyprian's language seems to say as much: but, on the 
other hand, the fact that he does not argue against such an extreme position, 
is almost fatal to the supposition that Stephen really held it. 

J 9 Dionysius of Alexandria is thought by some to have agreed with 
Stephen on the abstract question ; but considered it a matter in which differ- 
ence of opinion ought to be allowed. See Neale's Holy Eastern Church. 



262 History of the Church. 

of three Councils of Carthage, in the last of which eighty-seven 
Cyprian's Bishops were present : Cyprian made light of the 
Roman custom, and set at naught the excommunica- 
tions of Stephen. Indeed, the latter, on account of his vio- 
lence, was regarded by many as having cut himself off from the 
unity of the Church. 20 

In all this Cyprian was thoroughly consistent. While an 

ardent advocate of episcopal authority, and willing to pay a 

certain deference to the Roman See, he always re- 

His Frin- ' J 

cipu of garded that authority as limited by the rights of the 
People on the one side, and by the essential equality 
of Bishops on the other. In local affairs, a Bishop could do 
nothing without the concurrence of the local Church ; in mat- 
ters of general concernment, nothing without the consent of 
his peers and colleagues. 21 The conduct of Stephen, in endeav- 
oring to make the custom of one Church a law for all, was dia- 
metrically opposed to this wholesome rule. 

The baptismal controversy, like that concerning Easter, 
Question seems to have remained unsettled till the Council of 
settled. Nicsea. It made no schism, however, and the violence 
with which it was conducted speedily abated. 

Two other cases that occurred during the pontificate of 
Reiatiojis Stephen, served to bring out more distinctly still the 
of Bishops. mutual relations of the Bishops. 

Martianus, Bishop of Aries, a flourishing Church in Southern 
Gaul, having fallen into Novatian errors, Faustinus, Bishop of 
Case of Lyons, and sundry others in the same Province, wrote 
Martianus. re p eate dly both to Cyprian and Stephen, soliciting 
Cyprian's their intervention for the relief of the afflicted Church. 
Letter. Moved by their entreaties, Cyprian writes to Stephen 
on the subject. 22 ''It devolves upon us," says he, "to extend 

20 See Epistle of Firmilianus, Cyprian. Op. 

21 The term " Brother" or " Colleague," was the ordinary style of Bish- 
ops in addressing one another. The term " Papa," " Pope," " Father," was 
applied equally to all Bishops by their inferiors in grade, 

22 S. Cyprian. Epis. lxvi. Pariss. I quote the substance only of this letter. 



Rome and the West. 263 

both counsel and help in such emergencies. . . . For this very 
purpose the Bishops, though one in the bonds of unity and 
concord, are a numerous body ; that if one of our 

Why more 

Colleagues should play the wolf and begin to scatter than one 

nii i m Bishop. 

the nock, the others may come up to the rescue, like 
faithful shepherds, and gather the Lord's sheep into the fold. 
There is more than one haven provided for the storm-tossed 
mariner, . . . more than one inn for the traveller waylaid by 
thieves. . . . Where one refuge fails, another, the Appeal to 
nearest at hand, should be promptly opened. . . . \^ the nearest - 
behooves thee, therefore, brother well-beloved, to send most 
ample instructions to our brother Bishops in Gaul, . . . and 
to the people of Aries, that Martianus be deposed and another 
chosen in his stead." In thus laying the chief share of the 
common burden upon Stephen, Cyprian was obviously influenced 
by the greater nearness of the latter to the scene of action. 

The second case was somewhat different in character. The 
Churches of. Leon and Astorga in Spain had in due form pro- 
cured the deposition of their Bishops, Basilides and caseof 
Martialis, convicted of apostasy in the Decian perse- andMa^r^ 
cution ; and two other Bishops, Felix and Sabinus, tiaits. 

had been appointed in their place. But Basilides repaired to 
Rome and insinuated himself into the good graces of Stephen. 
The Spaniards, hearing that an effort would be made Cyprian 
to bring about his reinstatement, consulted Cyprian consultcd - 
and the North African Church on the course to be pursued. 
The answer is in the name of an African Synod. 23 It His 

commends the conduct of the Spaniards ; shows the 
deposition of the two Bishops to have been in all points right- 
eous and canonical ; reflects obliquely upon Stephen ; and ex- 
horts the Churches to stand firm against any effort to reverse 
their decision, from whatever quarter it might come. tl By all 
means let the divine and apostolic custom be observed, which 
prevails among us and among almost all the provinces of the 

2 3 Epistol. lxviL 



264 History of the Church. 

world. If a prelate is to be appointed, let the neighboring 
Bishops of the Province come together in presence of 

Mode 0/ r 01 

dccting the people over whom he is to be ordained, and let 

Bishops. , 

the Bishop be chosen by the people present, 24 who are 
thoroughly acquainted with his life and character. This you 
have done in the ordination of Sabinus, our Colleague. By the 
suffrage of the whole brotherhood, and by the judgment of the 
Bishops assembled, the Bishopric was conferred upon him, and 
hands were laid upon him in place of Basilides. Such an ordi- 
„, . nation cannot be disannulled. ... Be not troubled, 

Election 

not to be therefore, even though some of our Colleagues should 

annulled. , ... c 

despise the discipline of the Church, and make com- 
mon cause with Martialis and Basilides ; . . . knowing that he 
who thus acts falls under the Divine censure expressed in the 
Psalm, ' When thou sawest a thief thou consentedst unto him, 
and hast been partaker with the adulterers.' " 

In this way Cyprian rebuked the arbitrary spirit of Stephen, 
Stephen as Irenaeus had rebuked that of his predecessor, 

Rebuked. y ictor> 

The persecution that soon broke out under the Emperor Vale- 
rian was aimed especially at the leaders of the Church. According 
valerians to the imperial edict, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons were 
uon" 1 ' to be put to death by the sword ; Senators and Knights 
A.D.257-261. were t } ose their dignity and property; women of 
condition were to be banished ; and Christians in the service of 
the court were to be sent in chains to labor on the public 
works. 25 The object was to deprive the Church of Clergy, and 
Stephen and to stop the spread of Christianity among the higher 
su^er, classes. Stephen was among the first that suffered ; 
a.d. 257-258. |3 e j n g p U t t0 death, it is said, while celebrating the 
Service in one of the crypts of the catacombs. 26 Sixtus, his 
successor, obtained the same honor. Thus, within a period of 

24 Or, plebe prcesente — in presence of the people — it may mean; though 
the context, it seems to me, favors the translation I have given. 

25 S. Cyprian. Epistol. lxxxi. Pariss. 

26 Pagi, Breviarium PP. R. Martyr olog. Roman. 



Rome and the West. 265 

about eight years, five Roman Bishops were enrolled among the 
Martyrs. Cyprian in North Africa, and Dionysius Cyprian, 
in Egypt, were at first banished ; but this being found A " D " 2s8 ' 
insufficient, the former of these prelates was summoned again 
into the presence of the Proconsul, and was sentenced to death. 
He answered simply, and with dignity, " God be thanked." In 
the carrying out of the sentence there was great publicity, and 
much of the pomp and show of a state execution. 27 

On the restoration of peace, after the disastrous expedition 
against the Persians in which Valerian was made prisoner, 28 the 
stream of Church life flowed more tranquilly for awhile, 

Dionysius 

if not more healthily. In Africa, especially, few names of Rome, 

A. D. 259-269. 

of any note present themselves till the close of the cen- 
tury. In Rome, the long and prosperous pontificate of Dionysius 
was marked by two events of considerable importance. 

The Clergy of Pentapolis in Egypt addressed a complaint 
to the Roman Bishop against his famous namesake, their own 
spiritual head, Dionysius of Alexandria. In the course „ , . 

x J Co7nplaint 

of a controversv with the Sabellians who had obtained against 

J Dionysius 

a foothold in that region, he had employed arguments of AUxan- 

. . dria. 

and analogies which seemed to make the Son inferior 
in substance to the Father. A Council was held at Rome, and 
explanations were called for. 29 The Alexandrian Bishop satis- 
factorily cleared himself in an Apology of four Books, and the 
matter was soon dropped. 

2 7 Pontius, Vit. Cypr. ; Passio Cyprian. S. Cyprian, Epistol. lxxvi-lxxxii. 

28 After being treated with every indignity by the Persian king, Valerian 
was flayed alive. 

2 9 Dionysius of Rome was an able theologian ; and came nearer, per- 
haps, than any divine of that age to the exact definitions of the Nicene period. 
See fragments of his writings in Routh, Reliqu. Sacr. iii. For the expres- 
sions that brought Dionysius of Alexandria into trouble, see ch. vi. of this 
Book. It would seem that the Roman Church, having been compelled to 
condemn the extremes of Theodotus on the one hand, and of the Patripas- 
sians on the other, and having also rejected the more subtle error of subordi- 
nationism (or tritheism) as held by Hippolytus, had practically attained to the 
exact position of the Nicene period in advance of most Churches. 

12 



266 History of the Church, 

Such transactions were a necessary fruit of the unity of the 
Episcopate, 30 a practical answer to the question, Quis custodietipsos 
Bishops a custodes? Bishops had not only to watch their several 
ujtoitone flocks, but to keep an eye on one another. When the 
another. con duct, therefore, of any particular prelate was im- 
pugned, the first step would be a reference of the case to some 
distinguished colleague or near neighbor ; and if this failed^ a 
Council, as general as possible, would have to be assembled. 
Nothing could be more natural than such a mode of proceeding. 
As it was always easy, however, to run to one Bishop, but 
extremely difficult to bring about a concurrent action of many, 
it tended, on the whole, to the aggrandizement of the greater 
Sees ; and especially, of course, to that of the See of Rome. 

A second case, under the same pontificate, foreshadowed 
a Second another fruitful source of increase to Roman preroga- 
Case - tive. 

On the condemnation of Paul of Samosata by the Council 
in Antioch, 31 a question arose between the faction that still ad- 
hered to him and the party of Domnus his successor, as to the 
Referred to possession of Church property in that important See. 
t B < ish t o e ps ian I* was referred to the Emperor Aurelian. He again 
a.d. 272. committed it for decision to Dionysius and the Italian 
Bishops. This course, perfectly natural and equitable under all 
the circumstances, was the initiative of a policy, which, if Rome 
had continued to be the sole seat of empire, might 

Centrali- , .-.'-" 

zation have anticipated by some centuries the time of a great 
monarchy in the Church, by making the Roman 
Bishop the spiritual counterpart of the Emperor. Providentially 
the empire became divided as soon as it became Christian. 
Constantinople shared with Rome the imperial favor, and the 
centralizing drift was in part at least diverted. 

In the meantime, there was little in the Roman Church of 

3° We have already seen instances of such appeals to S. Cyprian. An- 
other similar case will appear in connection with Paul of Samosata. For 
appeals to Alexandria, see Neale's Holy E. Church, Book I. \ 5. 

3 1 See chap. v. of this Book. 



Rome and the West. 267 

the third century, at least in point of numbers or of external 
show, to indicate the greatness it was destined ulti- Greatness 
mately to achieve. 32 After two hundred years of daily /£!»ian 
growth, the Roman Bishop could boast a clerical staff church. 
of forty-six Presbyters, seven Deacons, seven Subdeacons, forty- 
two Alcolyths, and fifty-two Exorcists : and during Number of 
the whole of the third century the number of Presby- Chrtstians - 
ters ordained averaged less than two a year. 33 If the people, 
therefore, were to the priests according to any modern ratio, 
their whole number could hardly have been more than fifty 
thousand. This was but a small proportion of a population 
which, at a moderate estimate, must have numbered consider- 
ably more than a million. It was found chiefly, social 
moreover, among the lower, or perhaps the intelligent Position. 
middle, and foreign classes. 34 The Gospel, it is true, had 

3 2 S. Cyprian declares, however, that the Emperor Decius could better 
brook a competitor in his throne, than a Bishop in his metropolis : a feeling 
that arose probably from the exaggeration of hatred, rather than from any 
sense of danger to his power. 

33 See Pagi, Breviarium PP. R. who gives the ordinations of each reign 
in about the proportion mentioned. Calculations made from the vast extent 
of the Catacombs have led to the supposition of a much larger number of 
believers. But these calculations involve so many hypotheses, and lead to 
such extravagant results, that I cannot bring myself to allow them much 
weight. The number of Clergy and the number of Churches in Rome (about 
forty towards the end of the century) are the most reliable data. See Mait- 
land's Church in the Catacombs, and Northcote's Roman Catacombs. The 
basis of the calculations from the Catacombs is given concisely in Rawlinson's 
Historical Evidences, note xxxix. to lecture viii. 

34 Among the mere refuse of the earth, a heathen is made to say in the 
Octavius of Minucius Felix. This writer, probably an African by birth, is 
among the most graphic and lively of the Apologists. He wrote early in the 
century. That there must have been a fair proportion of intelligent people 
among the Christians is proved by the general character of the writings of 
the period; writings which in style and matter are far above the range of that 
kind of literature that would suit a mere rabble. Such expressions as " refuse 
of the earth," would be applied by a proud Roman to any foreigner, however 
intelligent. S. Paul himself was doubtless so regarded by many. See Mil- 
man's Hist, of Christianity, Book II. ch. ix. and Neander's Ch. History. 



268 History of the Church. 

been heard within the walls of the palace ; it had invaded 
the philosophic schools; it had made converts of senatorial 
rank : and in two or three cases a fitful gleam of imperial 
favor had awakened expectations not yet to be fulfilled. 
These, however, were as yet but exceptional cases. Heathenism 
still presented to the eye an almost unbroken front. 

To a stranger visiting Rome — gazing with awe upon the 
H magnificence of its palaces, hippodromes, theatres, 

Point o/ baths, porticos, and temples: or minding with the 

View. ° ° 

myriads of idolaters of every clime and rite who 
thronged these gorgeous centres of universal concourse, — the 
existence of Christianity might have been for a long time unno- 
ticed, or only noticed as a fact of little significance to a philo- 
sophic mind. 35 If an early riser, indeed, he might have seen a 
p,cuiiar few groups of men and women before the day dawned, 

stealing hurriedly to and fro in some obscure suburb. 
If a curious inquirer, he might have learned from some haughty 
Heathen Roman that these Ante tu can i, " haters of the light, 36 
Slanders. i iaters f t } ie gods, addicted to a skulking superstition 
utterly foreign to Roman habits," were distinguished from other 
strange sects by the name of Christians. But if he wished to know 
more of them, he could learn it only from themselves. With no 
temples, no altars of any note, 37 and as was commonly reported no 
God, they celebrated their sacra per egrina under an impenetrable 
veil of mystery. Some said they met together at night forThy- 
estean repasts ; that they worshipped an ass's head ; that they 
practised the most abominable obscenities. Others affirmed, on 

35 The silence of eminent heathen writers, on the subject of Christianity, 
is made much of by Gibbon. Such silence, however, was probably an affec- 
tation ; or, if real, it only shows how blind the wisest men are to things going 
on around them. 

3 6 Latebrosa et lucifuga natio, etc., etc. Minucii. Fel. Octavius. 

37 Minuc. Fel. Oct. That is, with none of sufficient splendor to attract a 
heathen eye. In the times of the Emperor Severus, edifices of greater pre- 
tensions began to be reared in the principal cities. On this subject, see Prof. 
Blunt's Lectures on the First Three Centuries. 



Rome and the West. 269 

the contrary, that with the exception of their strange, unsocial, 
and unpatriotic ways, no harm of any sort could be 
alleged against them. One thing certain was, that little . of the 
was seen of them on the sunny side of life ; little amid 
the pride and pomp of the great Roman world. 38 The mistress 
of the nations sat on a dazzling throne of universal dominion. 
Christianity seemed but the most sullen and intractable of the 
many slaves 39 that crouched at her imperial feet. 

Such was Christianity as seen from a secular point of view. 
But the Christians, the meanwhile, lived in a world of their 
own. While heathen Rome was still rearing her 

Christian 

proud fanes in the upper air, bewitching idolatrous Pointof 
crowds with a glittering mockery of greatness, Chris- 
tian Rome was delving deep for her foundations in the bowels 
of the earth. 40 Condemned to seek refuge among the dead, she 
found in death itself a source of inspiration. While the King 
of terrors mowed the heathen down like grass — a little ashes in 
an urn by the roadside being the fit symbol of their ephemeral 
existence — his presence was welcomed among the Christians as 
adding new recruits to their spiritual muster-roll, swelling the 
mighty host of invisible defenders, and increasing the volume 
and the efficacy of that all-prevailing prayer, Thy king- 

Catacombs. 

dom come. The catacombs, 41 m fact, were the tem- 
ples, the altars, it might even be said the literature and theology, 
of the primitive Roman Church. 

3 8 Non spectacula visitis, non pompis interestis, etc. Min. Fel. Octavius. 

39 Each nation had its own particular god ; but Rome, the universal and 

eternal, had conquered all gods, and had a place for all. This claim to a 

spurious Catholicty is finely stated in the Octavius. 

4° Impia Roma suis scrutata est molibus astra : 
Scrutata est terrae viscera Roma pia. 

— In Stibterran. Rom. Anonymi. 

4 1 Aringhi, Roma Sitbterranea. The magnificent work of Perret brings 

the subject down to the more recent discoveries : Catecombes de Rome, par 

Louis Perret: Paris, 1855. In this splendid work the plates are very exact, 

and wonderfully suggestive. Christian Catacombs have been found also in 

Naples, Syracuse, Malta, etc. See Gieseler, g 70, n. 11. Northcote's Roman 

Catacombs (London, 1857) is one of the latest works on the subject. 



2 70 History of the Church, 

Resorted to at first as inviolable places of sepulture, after- 
wards as convenient hiding-holes from constantly recurring per- 
piaceso/ secution, 42 these regions of the dead became the living 
heart of a most earnest faith ; the very shrine of the 
hallowed and stirring associations which the Resurrection of the 
dead, the Communion of saints, and the nearness of the Appear- 
ing of the King of Glory, could never fail to inspire. They were 
xoe/jyTijpia, — dormitories of those who slept in Christ ; aretz, — 
Places of sacred threshing-floors, in which the good grain was 
orshtp. se p ara ted from the chaff, and garnered up for future 
seed-times and harvests ; concilia martyrum, — where the living 
martyrs and the dead could meet in conference, as it were, and 
take sweet counsel tegether. 43 Nor was a tragic element want- 
ing, to give force and depth to suggestions of this kind. Some- 
times the myrmidons of power, having hunted the faithful from 
the daylight, would venture down in hot pursuit of them to 
Tragic their subterranean retreats. A Bishop would be torn 
Element. ^. Qm t ^ e a i tar 44 anc i ruthlessly despatched. A knot of 
worshippers would ^>e slaughtered amid their sacred rites, or 



4 2 " Alexander is not dead, but lives above the stars, and his body rests 
in this tomb. He ended his life under the Emperor Antoninus, who, when he 
saw himself much surpassed in conferring benefits, returned hatred for kind- 
ness. For when he was bending the knee to offer the sacrifice of prayer to 
the true God, he was led away to punishment. O what times/" Inscrip- 
tion, translated in Maitland's Church in the Catacombs. 

43 The custom of worshipping in cemeteries, of celebrating the natalitia 
of the martyrs about their tombs, and especially of feasting or worshipping in 
such places by night, proved also a source of superstitions and abuses. The 
great care of the Christians in burying their dead began to degenerate, before 
the end of the third century, into a fondness for relics. See Gieseler, \ 70. 
Felix, Bishop of Rome after Dionysius, is said, in the Liber Pontificates, to 
have first introduced the custom of celebrating the Eucharist over the tombs 
of the martyrs. Night-worship in cemeteries gave occasion to the 34th 
Canon of the Council of Elvira, which forbids candles to be used in those 
places, " lest the spirits of the Saints should be disquieted." See Bingham's 
Antiquities, xxiii. iii. 16 and 17 ; xx. vii. 10; viii. i. 9; etc., etc. 

44 This is said to have been the end of Stephen : S. Stephan. Acta apud 
Surium, August 2; Martyrolog. Roman. 



Rome and the West. 271 

walled up to perish of speedy suffocation. All who suffered 
thus, lived, in the faith of the survivors, on a glorious equality. 
The infant martyr and the hoary-headed Bishop alike slept in 
Christ, alike awaited His appearing. The same simple inscrip- 
tion, In Pace, 45 was a sufficient record of them both. Thus the 
inania regno,, the mere phantom realms of Dis as heathendom 
regarded them, became to Christian faith the most living and 
most real of all commonwealths. Persecution gave Earnest 
intensity to this feeling. The catacombs were its 
expression. Fired with this belief, the Christians closed their 
eyes to their own apparent inferiority; knowing that at any 
moment, suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, the plant grow- 
ing underground might rise and come forth victoriously to the 
light of day. 

In this spirit and with this faith, the Roman Church acted 
as if the great Babylon were already given to it in possession. 
Its seven Deacons, assisted by seven Subdeacons, administered 
the charities of the Church, and had charge of the poor, in the 
fourteen Regiones into which the city was divided. The Pres- 
byters, assisted by the Acolyths, labored in the Word and the 
Sacraments. The large number of Exorcists sprang 

. Working 

from a deep consciousness of a warfare with more than System of 

the Church. 

flesh and blood, — a vivid belief in the near presence 
and malignity of demoniacal possession. Over all the Bishop 
was supreme ; the foremost leader and example in times of 
peace, the most prominent victim in the day of persecution. 46 
There was little attention paid to preaching, in the 

Preaching. 

modern sense of the word. The Church services, 

which at first were probably in Greek, were, as the Latin ele- 

45 Or, VIBAS IN PACE. The earliest inscriptions are the most simple : 
— " Dormit," " quiescit," " depositus est," and the like; the formula in pace, 
however, almost always being added. 

4 6 There is no good reason to doubt that in the third century Callistus, 
Urbanus, Pontianus, Anterus, Fabianus, Cornelius, Lucius, Stephen, and 
Sixtus, successively exchanged the mitre for the Martyr's crown ; five of them 
within the space of about eight years. See Pagi, Breviar. PP. R. The testi- 
mony of the Catacombs has made this fact more certain. 



272 History of the Church. 

ment increased, 47 translated into the language understood by 
the people, and developed into a minute and elaborate system 
Public of instruction. Beyond this, teaching seems to have 
taken the familiar, expository, conversational form. 
In publicum muta, in angiitis garrula, as the heathen expressed 
it, the Church addressed herself to individuals rather than to 
crowds ; so that for more than three centuries pulpit eloquence 
Poplar was almost unknown. 48 But the business of the Church 
seems to have been admirably managed. The paternal 
element had not swallowed up the fraternal. The People took 
a decided interest in all affairs : and occasionally, through those 
popular heroes the Martyrs and Confessors, they exerted an un- 
due and dangerous influence. Hence the exuberance of Church 
life broke out frequently into faction, and once into a formid- 
able schism. But there were plenty of legitimate channels for 
popular zeal. Some fifteen hundred poor, besides widows and 
virgins, 49 were supported by the voluntary contribu- 
tions of the faithful. So lavish was the bounty thus 
diffused, that it created among the heathen suspicions of great 
Deacon stores of hidden wealth. In the reign of Valerian, 
y ' Archdeacon Laurentius was summoned and interro- 
gated on the subject. 50 He promised, if one day were granted, 
to reveal the Church's treasures. He redeemed his pledge, 
having taken care in the meantime to sell the church-plate 
and give the proceeds to the poor, by bringing a great crowd 
of these living "jewels " into the presence of the astonished and 

47 In the Catacombs Greek inscriptions abound ; and sometimes even the 
Latin inscriptions are graven in Greek characters. 

48 Sozomen (Eccl. H. vii. 19) mentions it at a peculiarity of Rome that 
there was no teaching in the Church. See Milman's Lat. Christianity. 
Minucius Felix explains, that the Christians would have been ready enough 
to discourse in public, if they had been allowed. 

49 Euseb. vi. 43. 

s° Three days before, his Bishop, Sixtus (or Xystus), had been borne to 
execution. Laurentius followed him in tears, saying, " Whither goest thou, 
father, without thy son ? " To which the Bishop answered, " Thou shalt fol- 
low me in three days ! " 






Rome and the West. 273 

angry judge. For this he was slowly broiled to death on a 
heated iron grate, and became the most popular of Roman mar- 
tyrs. But it was not to the poor of Rome merely that 

J \ Bounties 

the bounty of the Church was extended. Early in the to other 

Churches. 

second century Dionysius of Corinth had reason to 
laud the Christian sympathy of Rome. 51 In the Decian perse- 
cution the tide of liberality rolls back in fervid acknowledg- 
ments from the brethren of Arabia and Syria. 52 Somewhat 
later, Dionysius sends a ransom for the Cappadocian Christians 
carried into captivity by the Gothic invaders of Asia Minor. 
Thus early Rome deemed it more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive. Her well ordered charities, even more than her con- 
sistent policy, were laying the foundations of that power over the 
hearts of men which later Rome afterwards so grievously abused. 
The temporary outbreak against the Christians towards the 
end of Aurelian's reign, and the more systematic persecution 
under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, com- 

Persecu- 

monly called the tenth, added many names to the roll *»«*, a.d. 

274, 303. 

of Martyrs, and raised up some vigorous defenders of 
Christianity : among others two African rhetoricians, Arno- 
bius 53 and Lactantius. In the latter of these persecu- ArnoMus, 
tions the rancor of the heathen seems to have ex- Lactantlus - 
hausted itself. The world was growing sick of its own atroci- 
ties. When Constantine entered Rome a victor, 54 his rival 
Maxentius having perished in battle under the walls Trophy 0/ 
of the city, and when the long-hated Cross 55 was pub- 
licly set up in triumph, the mighty revolution seems hardly to 

5 1 Euseb. iv. 23. 52 Euseb. vii. 5. 

53 Arnobius, a heathen rhetorician, is said to have been converted by a 
dream. He wrote a work in seven Books on the vanity of idols, and the 
superstitions of the Gentiles. He also exploded the slanders so industriously 
circulated against the Christians. Hieronymus, in Addit. ad Chronic. Euseb. 
For Lactantius, see note to ch. ix. of this Book. 54 See ch ix. of this Book. 

55 The following is the inscription : Hoc salutari signo, vero fortitudinis 
indicio, civitatem vestram tyrannidis jugo Iiberavi, et S. P. Q. R. in libertatem 
vindicans, pristinse amplitudini splendorique restitui. Euseb. Life of Con- 
st 'antine, i. 31. 

12* 



274 History of the Church. 

have excited a murmur among the body of the people. Yet it 
cannot be supposed that the number of believers had much 
increased during the times of the persecutors. It was rather 
Heathenism that heathenism had become unnerved. Its strength 
had been quietly sapped by the pervading pressure of 
the Truth. Accordingly, when the time was fully come, its 
ramparts crumbled and fell ; sinking and disappearing without 
apparent cause, as the walls of Jericho sank before the persist- 
ent faith of the chosen people. 

But the boon of external peace was far from bringing with it 
a corresponding freedom from internal feuds. The persecution 
Nc i V had created a new sore, by exciting a bitter feeling 

"' against the traditores : persons, that is, who under 
fear of death had betrayed sacred books or vessels to the im- 
perial satellites. The victory, therefore, was hardly yet achieved, 
when the elements of faction, which had so often appeared 
before in Italy and North Africa, came suddenly to a head 
once more in the famous schism of the Donatists. 

It was a dispute as to the succession of the See of Carthage. 56 

Caecilianus had been elected against the intrigues of two com- 

petitors., Botrus and Celeusius ; but, unfortunately, 

Schism, owing to these intrigues, the Numidian Bishops did 

A.D. 311. 00 

not assist at the consecration. The disappointed party 
rallied a formidable opposition. Lucilla, a lady of influence 
and wealth, with certain of the senior es populi, got together a 

Council of seventy Numidian Bishops, who condemned 
charges Caecilianus on two charges. He had been ordained by 

against 

c&ciiianus, a traditor, it was said, — namely, by Felix, Bishop of 

A.D. 312. 

Aptunga ; he had forbidden food to be carried to some 
of the Confessors in prison. It is probable enough that he had 
opposed the extravagant devotion paid to these popular idols. 57 

s 6 S. Optati, De ScJiismate Donatist. Ed. Dupin. 

57 Optatus says that " Lucilla, just before the persecution, was sharply 
corrected by Csecilianus, then Archdeacon, because in receiving the Sacrament 
she kept kissing a bone of some Martyr or other, as if she preferred that to 
he Sacred Feast." De Sch. Don. i. 16. 



Rome and the West. > 275 

On these grounds he was condemned by the Council ; and 
Majorinus, a creature of Lucilla, was made Bishop in his stead. 
The consecrator, in this instance, being a certain Do- 

Donatus. 

natus Bishop of Casae Nigral in Numidia, the Schism 
received its name from him, and its followers were called Dona- 
tists or pars Donati. The name was confirmed to them by the 
rise of a second Donatus, s8 whose ability and zeal made him 
afterwards a prominent leader of the sect. 

The question was submitted, on their part, to the Emperor 
Constantine, — the first instance of the kind recorded in Church 
history : and at his instance three Bishops of Gaul met 

. . Appeal to 

in Council with Melchiades the Roman prelate, and Constan- 

tme y 

fifteen Italians, to put an end to the dispute. Caecili- a.d. 3 i 3 . 
anus was acknowledged, and the Donatists were con- Donatists 
demned. The latter, being similarly rejected after- condemned - 
wards at Aries 59 and other places, 60 broke off entirely a.d. 314-316. 
from the communion of the Church. Regarding the Catholics 
as corrupt, apostate, and defiled by communion with traditores, 
they would admit neither their baptism, ordination, nor religious 
vows, as of any validity whatsoever. 

The movement was, in fact, one of the many bitter fruits of 
that root of bitterness, which under the successive forms of 
Judaic concisionism, philosophic encrateia, Phrygian Nature of 
enthusiasm, Novatian rigor, and in short phariseeism theHeres y- 
in general, had followed pace by pace the progress of the Truth, 
and had cast a baleful shadow upon all its triumphs. Africa had 
suffered more from it than any other portion of the Church. 

s 8 S. Augustin. De Hceres. 69. 

59 At Aries, Bishops were present from Gaul, Italy, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, 
and North Africa, to the number, it is said, of two hundred — S. Augustin. 
Contra Epistol. Parmeniani, v. 5 — among whom were three British Bishops : 
Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, Adelfius of Lincoln See Bingham, 
ix. vi. 20. 

60 Appealing from the Synod at Aries to the Emperor, they were con- 
demned again at Milan ; after which they conducted themselves with greater 
violence. 



276 History of the Church. 

But it was rife everywhere. The Council of Eliberis 61 or Elvira 
Council 0/ i. n Spain, holden soon after the outbreak of the Diocle- 
ra ' sian persecution, is redolent of its spirit. The attempt 
on the part of a few to bind their own virtues on the con- 
sciences of all, is popular with the crowd, and even commends 
itself to minds of a higher order. It is honorable to the 
great body of the Clergy of the early Church, that resistance to 
the encroachments of this spirit was steadfastly maintained by 
struggle of them. They felt a responsibility for the weaker mem- 
aga/lis?* bers of the flock, which brought them often into con- 
the btrong. ^ [ci w jj]j tlie hard and narrow notions of influential 
laymen, especially of the class of Confessors. While they hon- 
ored the martyr-spirit, they were forced to put a check upon the 
extravagances which so frequently flowed from such honor. 
Hence the charge of starving the Confessors brought against 
Caecilianus. Hence the unpopularity of his sober predecessor 
Mensurius f 2 of whom we learn that, owing to the number of 
Martyrs, he excluded from the List the names of those who had 
put themselves in the way of persecution. Hence, in short, a 
struggle so close, so deadly, so confused at times, that it is 
difficult in many cases to distinguish which side of the line the 

61 In this austere Council, Hosius of Cordova was present, afterwards 
famous in connection with the Arian controversy. It forbade absolution to 
the lapsed even at the point of death, prohibited the Clergy, even Subdeacons, 
from the use of marriage ; ordered double fasts for every month except July 
and August, etc., etc. It was, in fact, more like a Novatian than a Catholic 
Council. Nineteen Bishops and twenty-six Priests were present. 

62 He saved the sacred Books by a stratagem : carrying them off and 
hiding them, he put in their place in the Church a collection of heretical 
writings. When the officers came in quest of them, therefore, he readily sur- 
rendered all that could be found in the Church. The trick was afterwards 
revealed to the Proconsul, who summoned Mensurius into his presence. The 
latter entrusted the sacred treasures to some of the Seniores, but, fearing that 
he might not return home again, took the precaution to make out a list of them, 
and committed it to the charge of an elderly woman. The Seniores proved 
false to their trust ; but the list remained, and the memory of Mensurius was 
vindicated. S. Optat. De Schism. Donat. 



Rome and the West. 277 

Church occupied ; and in which truth itself seemed more or less 
divided. 

However this may be, Donatism continued for three centu- 
ries to devastate the African Church. Constantine endeavored 
to conciliate it by lenient measures. But it claimed Religious 
everything, and was averse to peace. Among the half- 
converted savages of the rural districts it became an uncon- 
trollable frenzy, defying the utmost force of the civil power to 
suppress it, and involving Catholics and schismatics alike in the 
complicated horrors of civil and religious wars/ 3 It was finally 
extinguished, only through the downfall of African Christianity 
itself, by the overrunning floods of Vandal and Saracen invasion. 

The long- continued struggle with these uncompromising and 
bitter heretics strengthened the union that existed between 
the daughter Church of Carthage and her Roman Rome t - hc 
mother; and placed the latter more decidedly than s fJ^er^/ 
ever at the head of the cause, not only of Italian but Orthodox y- 
of North African orthodoxy. Indeed, throughout the West, to 
be in communion with Rome was to hate Novatianism, to abhor 
the Donatists. In proportion, therefore, to the length and bit- 
terness of the war with these rigid and powerful sects, the ties 
that bound the provincial Churches to the great metropolitan 
standard-bearer became day by day more numerous and more 
strong. 

And the Roman Church was the more decidedly committed 
to this position from the fact that the Donatists, claiming to be 
exclusively the Body of Christ, established an Episco- 

3 J ' . . . Claim to 

pal succession of their own in the imperial city. This the chair 

1 . of S.Peter. 

line of Bishops ran on till the times of Pope Siricius, 
and gave occasion to the orthodox to dwell more than had pre- 
viously been the case upon the succession from S. Peter, as a test 
of the Catholic Church, 64 — of the Catholic Church, namely, in 

6 3 For a vivid account of the Circumcelliones, see Milman's Hist, of 
Christianity. 

6 4 S Optat. De Sc/iism. Donat. lib. ii. 2. The Donatists, he argues, could 
count their Bishops back through Macrobius, Encolpius, Bonifacius, to Victor, 



278 History of the Church. 

the city of Rome. The constant repetition of this argument, 
legitimate enough in the question between the two lines of Bish- 
ops in Rome and Carthage, had the effect nevertheless of unduly 
exalting the position of the great Western See, and in course of 
time opened the way for encroachments upon the rights of other 
Churches. In this way the Donatist Schism became a most im- 
portant element in the History of the Latin Church. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CHURCH AND SCHOOL OF ANTIOCH. 

While the West was thus absorbed in questions of discipline or 
The East of practical religious life, the more speculative East 
teoogicai. wag j ntent on theology proper ; Antioch and Alexan- 
dria continuing to be the centres of activity in this direction. 

Antioch, the head of the Syrian Churches, with more or less 
of a patriarchal influence over Cilicia, Phoenicia, Comagene, 
Osrhoene, and Mesopotamia, 1 had shared very largely in that 
general awakening of thought which distinguished the latter 
Theophihis, half of the second century. Theophilus, the sixth 
Bishop in descent from the Apostles, a convert from 
heathen philosophy, was among the foremost in this respect. 
He wrote against Marcion, Hermogenes, and other heretics; left 
Trias or an Apology in three Books, noted for elegance of 
Tnnitas. st yi e . anc [ was amon g the first to introduce the word 
Trias or Trinity into common use among theological writers. 2 

who was sent from Africa to Rome in the time of Constantine: the Roman 
Bishops could trace back their line to S. Peter and S. Paul. It was obvious, 
therefore, that the claim which the Donatists made to the See of Peter had 
no historic foundation. 

1 See Bingham's Antiquities, ix. ii. 9. 

2 The three Persons of the Trinity he distinguished as God, the Word, 
Wisdom. 



The Church and School of Antioch. 279 

At this period discussions with heretics, both oral and in .writing, 
employed much of the time and demanded all the skill of the 
chief pastors of the Church. Such discussions necessarily led to 
the study of philosophy and dialectics, and to a more critical 
and searching examination of the sacred text. 

S. Babylas, 3 the twelfth in the succession, distinguished him- 
self as a bold and prudent leader during the temporary occu- 
pancy of Antioch by the Persian king Sapor ; and was 
afterwards a Martyr in the Decian persecution. As he Martyr, 

A.D. 250. 

was led to execution, he lifted up his voice in a song 
of triumph, " Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord 
hath dealt bountifully with me." Three youthful disciples suf- 
fered with him. As the officer was taking off their heads, the 
saint cried aloud, "Behold, I and the children which the Lord 
hath given me." 

When the Novatian troubles broke out at Rome, Fabius, the 
immediate successor of Babylas, took part with the 

Fabius. 

schismatics and summoned a Council, to which he in- 
vited also Dionysius of Alexandria. He died, however, before 
the Council could assemble ; and when it finally came 

Novatian 

together, the cause of Novatian was condemned, condemned, 
Fabius was succeeded by Demetrianus, and Deme- 
trianus by that arch-innovator in doctrine and in morals, Paul 
of Samosata. 

The latter was no sooner seated in the episcopal chair, than 
he began to give general offence. His pravity has been vari- 
ously ascribed to a Judaizing leaven still working in 
the Syrian Church, 4 to intimacy with the new Plato- Samosata, 

J . . A.D. 262. 

nists, who were then at the height of their celebrity or 
finally to his own ambitious and frivolous disposition. Much 
stress has been laid upon the last of these. Not content with 
the profound respect universally paid to the Clergy, he affected 
much of the state and assumed the airs of a man of the world, 
a philosopher, and bel esprit. He thus identified himself with a 

3 Cave's Lives of the Fathers, vol. i. ; S. Chrysost. lib. de S. Babyl. 

4 Newman's Avians of the Fourth Century, chap. i. \ i. 



280 History of the Church. 

refined and intellectual but vainglorious circle, which flour- 
ished at that time in the luxurious capital of the East, cherished 
Court of by the smiles of Zenobia, the renowned and brilliant 
queen of Palmyra. The famous Longinus was one of 
their great lights. With Christianity as a religion they had 
little to do ; but for Christianity as a philosophic system, based 
upon writings remarkable for their sublimity and beauty, they 
could hardly fail to entertain a certain respect. To win such 
men, and to make Christian life and doctrine palatable to them, 
may possibly have been an object with such a man as Paul. But 
the bulk of believers were too sturdy and too real to feel much 
sympathy with such liberality. Paul became odious to his 
brethren in proportion as he commended himself to a more 
courtly circle. 

He was accused of pride, arrogance, luxury, and venality. 
The hymns commonly sung to Christ as God, and which had 
special been all along a chief bulwark of the Creed, he de- 
aialnst clared to be mere novelties of the date of the Roman 
Paul. Bishop Victor, 5 and forbade them to be used in his 

Church any more. In their place he substituted verses of his 
own composition, sung with great eclat by a trained choir of 
women. He held, or acted as if he held, the office of duce- 
narius ; 6 and delighted to be seen in the forum attended by a 
crowd, and seemingly absorbed in a multiplicity of business. 
In religious affairs also he affected much state ; preached with 
vehement gesticulations ; and encouraged the bad practice, 
afterwards shamefully prevalent in the Church, of applauding 
the eloquence of the preacher, instead of hearkening to his 
message in respectful silence. He connived at the abuse, on 
the part of the Clergy, of living on too familiar terms with 
adopted virgin "sisters"; and set a scandalous example in this 
respect. To crown all, he took care to lay people under so 

5 Compare Euseb. v. 28, and vii. 30. 

6 It is hard to say, from the letter of the Bishops (Euseb. vii. 30), whether 
he held such an office, or only affected the style of it. The 'office was named 
from the salary, viz., 200,000 sestert. 



The Church and School of Antioch. 28 c 

many obligations, or so to intimidate them by his threats and 
frowns, that hardly any one could be found to come forward as 
an accuser or witness against him 

Such charges, in this and similar cases, may have arisen in 
part from theological resentment, and from the general preva- 
lence in the Church of austere views. The earnest - 

• , . Heresy 

ness with which they were urged, however, is an and Evil 

. Living. 

interesting fact, as showing that corruptness of living 
could not be dissociated as yet from corruptions in the Faith. 

The error of Paul, like that of Ebion, Theodotus, and Arte- 
mon, consisted in a denial of the personal preexistence of 
Christ, and, of course, in a denial of the Trinity, ex- Error of 
cept in such sense as could be reconciled with Neo- PauL 

Platonic views. Jesus he believed to have been a mere man, 
though miraculously conceived and supernaturally fa- mimani- 
vored. To this man, growing up in sinless perfection, tarianism - 
the Divine Word or Reason became united. Jesus thus dwells 
in the Divine Wisdom, He is clothed with it, He participates in 
it. That He is the Divine Wisdom Paul was unwilling to con- 
fess. He believed in Him and adored Him as a sort of deified 
man. 7 

Alarmed by these novel views, which commended themselves 
both to the Judaizing and philosophizing circles of the court, 
and which seem to have been conveyed in the form of Appeal to 
captious and sceptical inquiries rather than in clear the Bish °£ s - 
definitions, 8 the Antiochean clergy acted on the principle of 
which so many precedents had already been afforded, and ap- 
plied for relief to the neighboring Bishops. Dionysius of Alex- 
andria, Hymenseus of Jerusalem, Firmilianus the learned prelate 

7 The heresy of Paul is quite fully discussed in Mosheim's Hist. Com- 
mentaries on the First Three Centuries. See, also, Gieseler, Eccl. Hist. \ 60, 
note 12. 

8 His Ten Queries, not particularly well answered by Dionysius of Alex- 
andria (if the Answer to the Ten Queries be his), embrace most of the diffi- 
cult passages of the New Testament, in which our Lord is spoken of according 
to His humanity. See Mansi, ConciL, Council of Antioch. 



282 History of the Church, 

of Csesarea in Cappadocia, and other distinguished pastors, 
were written to and invited to intervene. Dionysius could not 
come to Antioch ; but after a sharp correspondence with Paul, 9 
wrote to the Church a letter condemnatory of him, purposely 
omitting the customary form of salutation to the Bishop. The 
Tw0 other chief pastors assembled once and perhaps twice 

Councils. j n Council j but, owing to the evasions of Paul and 
the moderate counsels of Firmilianus, were satisfied with vague 
promises of repentance and amendment. 

The abuses and false teaching still going on, a third Council 
_, . , of the Church had to be assembled : on his way to 

intra J 

Council of which, Firmilianus, one of the worthiest and most 

A ntiochy 

a.d. 269. respected of the prelates of his times, was taken sud- 
Death of denly ill and departed this life in peace. He was a 

disciple and warm friend of Origen ; had taken part 
in a great Council at Iconium, in which Montanist baptism was 
rejected by the Bishops of Phrygia, Galatia, Cilicia, and Cap- 
padocia ; and, as we have seen, was a staunch supporter of 
Cyprian in his controversy with Stephen. It was owing to his 
high character rather than to the eminence of his See, that he 

exerted so great an influence in the matter of Paul. In 

Malchion. 

his absence, Malchion, a Presbyter of Antioch, a 
sophist by education, and head of the Catechetical School, 
seems to have been the guiding and controlling spirit. Hith- 
erto, Paul had been examined chiefly as to what he 
Error held, and by a skilful use of phrases, or by vague pro- 
fessions of be'ief in the Divinity of Christ, had man- 
aged to conceal his errors. Malchion questioned him more 
closely as to what he denied. 10 By this the heresy was un- 
covered. In an encyclical letter addressed "to Dionysius and 

9 Without accepting the letters (given in Mansi, Concilia) as genuine, I 
cannot but believe there was some such correspondence. The assertion of 
the Council that Dionysius wrote without condescending to notice Paul, ap- 
plies only to the letter laid before the Council. 

10 Such, at least, is the spirit of the questions given in Mansi, Concilia : 
e. g., ",non concedis fUium unigenitum ... in toto salvatore ovcluQul" etc. 



The Church and School of Antioch, 283 

Maximus," and to all other fellow-ministers throughout the 
world, Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons, and to Letter of 
the whole Catholic Church throughout the world in all *** CounciL 
places under heaven ; " and written in the name of " Helenus, 
Hymenaeus, Theophilus, Theotecnus . . . and Malchion and 
Lucius, and others who are Bishops, Presbyters, or Deacons, 
. . . together with the Churches of God : ' ' the condemna- 
tion of Paul, with the appointment of Domnus in his p a uiand 
stead, was formally promulged and commended to the omnus. 
faithful everywhere. "We have communicated this to you," 
is their language to the Roman Pontiff, " that you may write 
and receive letters from him ' ' (namely, from Domnus, who had 
been elected in the place of Paul) ; "but the other (namely, 
Paul) may write to Artemas if he pleases, and those that think 
with Artemas may have communion with him." 12 

This transaction, so public, so formal, so deliberate, involving 
a cause and a person of the highest importance, participated 111 
by the foremost prelates of the times, and unanimously catholic 
concurred in by all the Churches, is a striking illustra- mty ' 

tion of the Catholic unity of this period. It is obvious that this 
unity involved no supremacy of any"* particular See. No Supreme 
The Council wrote to the Roman Bishop as to all other H t ad. 
prelates and Churches, merely to inform him of what had been 
done, and to show him where he should extend the right hand 
of fellowship. 

It is an equally striking illustration of the firmness and 
decision with which the essentials of the Faith were held. So 
long as the question could be made to turn on a mere oneness in 
word — namely, on the force of the term consubstan- the Fatth - 
tial 13 — Paul was able by his sophistry to blind the eyes of his 

11 That is, Dionysius of Rome and Maximus of Alexandria, the latter 
having succeeded Dionysius the Great in that See a short time before. 

12 Euseb. vii. 30. 

x 3 The term was not accepted by the Council, because in the skilful hands 
of a man like Paul it could easily be made to bear a Sabellian interpretation. 
When it was afterwards adopted in the Council of Nice, it was wit 
understanding that the Sabellian gloss was not to be admitted 



284 History of the Church. 

brethren. But when it came to the point of a simple affirmation 
or denial of the proper divinity of Christ, there was room for no 
further evasions. On that subject, at least, the mind of the 
Church was clear. 

After the sentence of the Council the party of Paul still held 
together, under the protection of Zenobia, and Domnus was 
Sect of unable to get possession of the episcopal abode. But 
when Zenobia had been conquered by Aurelian, the 
question was referred, as we have seen, to the Italian Bishops, 
who adjudged the Church property to the orthodox side. A sect 
of Paulites, however, or Samosatenians, continued in existence 
during the rest of the century. 

The struggle with this heresy had an influence, perhaps good 
in the main, though not unmixed with evil, upon the theological 
School of development of the Antiochean Church. A good effect 
was the increased interest awakened in the study of the 
Dorotk.us. Scriptures. Dorotheus, a Presbyter learned in Greek 
and Hebrew, who flourished till the times of Julian the Apostate, 
Eusebius. was a leader in this direction. So also Eusebius of 
Alexandria, who had been sent by Dionysius to take 
Anatoiius. part in the controversy against Paul, and Anatolius, an 
Aristotelian and eminent mathematician. There were, in short, 
many learned men, 14 with much study, much discussion, much 
effort to reconcile religion with what was then considered science, 
— much earnest and thoughtful, and in some cases, it would seem, 
skeptical investigation. 

The Aristotelian method, which is better fitted for the detec- 
tion of bad reasoning than for the discovery of truth, was much 
Bias in vo^ue there. There was also a vicious habit of 

towards , 

Error. making sacred themes the subjects of school exercises 
in declamation or debate. In addition to all this, there was 

however, the weakness of trie best-considered words in defining the Faith, that 
notwithstanding this precaution, there was a tendency among some of the most 
earnest advocates of the Nicene Creed to fall back into the error of Sabellius 
or into that of Paul. Marcellus of Ancyra was an eminent example of this. 
J 4 Euseb. vii. 32. 



The Church and School of Antioch. 285 

a subtle influence of the Judaizing spirit ; the existence of which 
was indicated by the fact that Quartodecimanism began to revive 
in Antioch towards the close of the century, 15 though in other 
quarters it had sensibly declined. 

Among the teachers who gave celebrity at this period to 
the School of Antioch. Lucian, surnamed the Martyr, 
labored with great zeal in the text of holy Scripture, and his 

Disciples. 

but, falling into errors akin to those of Paul, seems to 
have merited the bad name of father of the Arian heresy. 16 His 
fault was atoned, in the eyes of contemporaries, by a Father 0/ 
glorious martyrdom. It was revived, however, in the 
memory of posterity, by the marked pravity of his disciples, 
Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Maris of Chalcedon, Theognis of 
Nicsea, Leontius of Antioch, Asterius, and other distinguished 
men and women afterwards notorious in the Arian strife. At a 
later period, Chrysostom somewhat redeemed the character of 
this School ; but what it gained in him, it lost in the person of 
the heretic Nestorius. 

The Christians of Antioch seem to have suffered less from 
persecution than their brethren in other places, and to have 
enjoyed on the whole a larger freedom. From the 

J J ° Martyr- 

fury of Diocletian, however, or rather of Maximin, domof 
they did not escape so easily. Among others that 
suffered, Lucian was carried a prisoner to Nicomedia, where by 
his fervid exhortations he restored some who had fallen from the 
Faith, and prepared them for a martyr's crown. He was starved 
to death in prison. His fellow-prisoners, it is said, 17 being at a 
loss for an altar on which to celebrate the Lord's Supper, he laid 
himself out on his back and said to them, This breast shall be 

r 5 Tillemont, Mem. vol. iii. makes the cessation of Quartodecimanism in 
Asia more absolute than is warranted by his authorities. See Letter of Con- 
stantine to the Churches, Socrat. Hist. i. 9; and on the subject of this para- 
graph generally, see Newman's Arians, i. 1. 

16 Arius claimed him — Theodoret. Eccl. Hist. i. 5 ; and the Catholics 
more or less admitted the claim — Theod. i. 4. 

r 7 Apud Surium, Jan. 7. 



286 History of the Church. 

your Table, and you standing round shall be my holy Temple. 
a Living I n this posture he continued for fourteen days, till 
Altar - at last with the simple confession, I am a Christian, he 
departed in the peace of God. 

But, as usual in times of trial, there were many weak souls 
unable to endure the torments or put up with the disgraces to 
Desperate which the tyrants resorted. 18 Besides those who lapsed, 
shifts. some were driven to the alternative of self-destruction. 
Two virgins of Antioch, well known in the city for their rank 
and beauty, drowned themselves to escape the hands of the 
soldiers. Similar acts of desperation occurred everywhere, and 
are impartially recorded by the early Church. The history of 
martyrdom is not a record of heroism only, or of unsullied 
faith ; it abounds with most instructive lessons of all possible 
shades of human frailty and imperfection. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE EGYPTIAN CHURCH. 



Whatever there was of good in the labors of Origen, remained 
and stamped itself upon the Church mind of his age. His 
Origen's numerous disciples were able, orthodox, and highly 
Disciples. m fl uen ti a i teachers. That they inherited so much of 
the solid merit and so little of the extravagance of their master, 
may be fairly attributed to the firm stand taken against the latter 
by Demetrius and the Alexandrine Church. 1 

Dionysius, surnamed the Great, a convert from heathenism 
Dionysius, an d a man of large learning, elected to the Episcopate 
a.d. 247. Q f Alexandria the second in order after Demetrius, was 
one of the most eminent of these disciples. Like his master, 

18 Euseb. viii. 12, 13. 

1 On this chapter, see Neale's Holy Eastern Church; Eusebius. Eccl. 
Hist. vi. 26, 30, 35, and parts of Book VII. 



The Egyptian Church. 287 

he had been for some time at the head of the Catechetical 
School. The habit of examining and proving all things had 
been the means, under God, of bringing him to the Truth. He 
persisted in the habit; and that he might be " a wise money- 
changer," 2 quick in the detection of spiritual counterfeits, he 
gave much of his time to the perusal of heretical and philosophic 
books : — what scruples he had on the subject being specially 
removed by a vision. He thus qualified himself to take an in- 
telligent part in the questions of the day. 

His noble conduct in the Decian and Valerian persecutions, 
and in the great plague that followed, has already been alluded 
to in the third chapter of this Book. It shows his His Noble 
thorough good sense, that, in the latter calamity, he Conduci - 
caused those who did their duty, and perished in ministering to 
the sick, to be enrolled in the rank of Martyrs. 

Like Cyprian, his great contemporary, he kept up the friend- 
liest relations with the Roman Church. In the schism that broke 
out there, having made himself acquainted with the He opposes 
merits of the case, he took the side of Cornelius ; and Novattan - 
when Novatian wrote to him, by way of apology, that he had 
been forced against his will to take the Bishopric, he exposed the 
hollowness of the pretence by quietly advising him to resign. 3 
On the vexed question of the day, the treatment, namely, of 
those who had fallen from the Faith, the Alexandrine rule was 
milder than that which commonly prevailed. In the West it was 
considered a great stretch of charity that those who had given 
evidence of repentance before being taken with a mortal illness, 
should be allowed the communion at their death. In Lenity to 
Alexandria, the indulgence was granted without refer- theLa P sed - 
ence to the time at which penitence began. Novatian severity, 
therefore, won little favor there. So widely, however, had the 
seeds of that error been scattered through the world, and so 
strong was the leaning towards austere views, that Dionysius 

2 " Be ye wise money-changers," — a saying attributed to our Lord, or to 
some one of His Apostles. 

3 Euseb. vi. 45. 



288 History of the Church. 

found it necessary to warn his people on the subject, both orally 
and in writing. He wrote, also, against Novatian to the Churches 
of Armenia and Asia Minor ; looked with much concern upon 
the effort made by Fabius in Antioch to have the heresy endorsed 
by a Council of that Church ; and it was through his influence 
mainly that the Council, when convened, decided against the 
wishes of their recently departed Bishop. A little while later 
Tke Bisk- ne na d the satisfaction of announcing to the Roman 
ops united. pre } ate 4 t ] iat a n fa Q Churches of the East, previously 
divided on the subject, were restored to peace, and that all the 
chief pastors were in a state of delightful concord. 

The cultivated tone of the Alexandrine Church rendered it 

comparatively free from the sensuous or enthusiastic heresies. 

In Arsinoe, however, and the surrounding district, the 

Chihasm. . 

Millenanans effected a lodgment for awhile ; their literal 
interpretation of the Apocalypse having gained an eloquent 
expositor in the person of one Nepos, 5 a Bishop of 
good character, who by hymns and discourses and 
pungent confutation of the Allegorists, as the opposite party 
were called, stimulated the popular expectation of a temporal 
kingdom of the Messiah. After his death, his followers began 
to withdraw from communion. Being simple-minded men, they 
had a vague feeling, perhaps, that the Church was becoming too 
charity scholarly and too intellectual. 6 Dionysius made a visit 
victorious. to t ^ e disaffected region; invited the Clergy and people 

to a public conference; conciliated them by warm expressions of 

4 Baronius contends that the letter refers to the question of Rebaptizing ; 
in proof of which he urges that Antioch was the only part of the East dis- 
turbed by Novatianism. There is no ground for this assertion. On the con- 
trary, the fact is patent that Dionysius wrote on the subject of Novatianism to 
many Churches. In addition to which it is to be noticed that, in the letter to 
Dionysius of Rome, Demetrianus, the immediate successor of Fabitis, is par- 
ticularly mentioned among the harmonized Bishops. See Euseb. Eccl. Hist. 
vii. 25. s Euseb. vii. 24. 

6 Observe the slightly patronizing but kindly and charitable way in which 
Dionysius praises "the village presbyters and teachers" who met him in 
conference. Euseb. vii. 24. 



The Egyptian Church. 289 

esteem for their departed Bishop; made many judicious conces- 
sions; and finally, after three days of charitable discussion, con- 
vinced them of the sin and folly of their course. In the agitation 
of this subject, the letter of the Apocalypse gave him so much 
trouble that he was disposed to question the authority of the Book. 
But, with his usual moderation, he refrained from rejecting 
"what so many of the brethren highly esteemed." Suspecting 
"a sense in it that lay deeper than words," he was content 
"to admire it the more " in proportion as his " reason failed to 
sound the depths of its meaning." He argued, however, that 
it was written by some other than S. John the Apostle. 7 

In the Baptismal controversy, Dionysius was more anxious 
for peace than for victory to either side. His own mind, it 
would seem, was not quite made up on the subject. 8 Baptismal 
He had before him the case of those, who, having left Q uestl0n - 
the Church, had afterwards returned ; or who, having been 
initiated in some sect, had received from them a baptism pro- 
fane and even blasphemous in form ; or of those whose doubtful 
or defective baptism had been covered, as it were, by long com- 
munion in the Church. Whether he contemplated distinctly 
the question of a baptism unobjectionable in form, but 
defective in respect of an authorized minister, the extracts 
from his writings given by Eusebius are insufficient to deter- 
mine. However this may be, he had no sym- Pacific 
pathy with the arbitrary course of the Roman Views. 
Bishop. "The custom" (of rebaptizing), he urged, "is 
not now introduced for the first time, nor in the African 
Church only. It was known long ere this, under Bishops before 
us, and in populous provinces; approving itself to the Synods 
holden at Iconium and Synnada, and to many of the brethren. 

7 His doubts were based chiefly on differences of style, which he points 
out with much acuteness in the manner of modern criticism, but in a more 
reverential spirit. See Euseb. vii. 25. 

8 Neale's positive declaration, that he was opposed to the rebaptizers, is 
not warranted at all by the passages cited in its favor : Holy East. Church, i. 7. 
See Euseb. vii. 5, 9. 

13 



290 History of the Church. 

I cannot bear that they should be embroiled by a reversal of 
their decisions. For it is written, Thou shalt not remove the 
landmarks of thy neighbors, which thy fathers have set." 

This temperate course did much towards allaying the heat of 

the controversy; the renewal of persecution, under the Emperor 

Valerian, probably did more. During the prevalence 

Hon, of this storm, the forty-two months of which natur- 

A.D. 257. 

ally suggested visions of Antichrist, Dionysius being 
banished from his See to Cephron in Libya, labored for the 
spread of the Gospel in the parts thereabout, and wrote two 
Paschal of the epistles called Paschal Letters. The custom of 
Letters. ^ us announcing to the Church the beginning of Lent 
and Easter Day, with religious exhortations suitable to the sea- 
son, became a prerogative of the See of Alexandria, and was 
confirmed to it by canon in the great Council of Nicsea. 

In the Sabellian controversy with some of the Clergy of Pen- 

tapolis, already referred to in the fourth chapter of 

Sabellian r J r 

Contra- tliis Book, and in the painful proceedings connected 

versy. 

with Paul of Samosata, an important step was made 
towards that distinctness of conception with regard to the great 
verities of the Creed, which was becoming more and more 
necessary to the continuance of peace. The former case showed 
how easily the most orthodox might fall into seeming heresy, 9 

for want of guardedness and precision in the use of 

Charity . 

and terms. But Dionysius had the grace to explain his 

Wisdom. . -ill -n 

meaning. His contemporaries had the still rarer 
grace to accept his explanation. Had it proved otherwise, 
Arianism might have risen upon the Church a half century 
sooner than it did, and Alexandria, like Antioch, might have 

9 Intent upon vindicating the personality of the Son, and having in view 
His human nature only, he said : " The Son of God was made and produced. 
He is not proper in his nature, but differing in essence from the Father, as the 
vine from the vine-dresser and the ship from the shipwright ; for seeing that 
He was made, He was not before He was produced." His meaning is 
defended in S. Athanas. De Sentent. S. Dionys. ; in Bull, Defens. F. N. ; 
in Neale's Holy East. Church; in Burton's Testimonies of the Ante- Nicene 
Fathers. 



The Egyptian Church. 291 

numbered an arch-heretic among its Bishops. In later times, 
when controversy became more bitter and charity more rare, 
there was less willingness to admit the soundness of Dionysius. 10 
But his defence with posterity is his undoubted humility and 
moderation. With a certain independence of mind and freedom 
of expression, characteristic of the Alexandrine School, he was 
aware of the imperfections of human thought and human lan- 
guage. For this reason he was wary of the use of the 

The terin 

term consubstantial.™ Its meaning was not yet settled " of one 

Substance." 

in the Church, and a word of unsettled meaning is 
always liable to abuse. For the same reason he was ready to 
examine and reexamine, to discuss, to explain, to retract if 
necessary, to understand those who were opposed to him in 
opinion, and, if possible, to put himself in a position to be 
understood by them. 12 In this respect, the disciples of Origen 
and the Alexandrine School seem to have been in advance of 
most of their contemporaries. 

Dionysius was succeeded by Maximus, and Maximus by 
Theonas ; from whose patriarchate, that is, from the first year 
of the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, began the 

. Era of the 

so-called era of the Martyrs : the Alexandrine Church Martyrs, 

A.D. 284. 

having adopted that epoch, instead of the Incarnation, 
as the beginning of its years. During all this time, the Cate- 
chetical School continued in a flourishing condition under 
Clement II.; under Pierius, who by his many able writings won 
the title of the second Origen; and under Theognos- p ete rthe 
tus, Serapion, anpl Peter. On the death of Theonas, Mar *y r - 
Peter, the last of these, surnamed the Martyr, succeeded to his 

10 S. Basil, e. g., regarded him as Fons Arii. 

11 Which he seems to have used, however, for Athanasius says to the 
Arians (in a passage quoted by Burton in his Testimonies, etc.), " If the patrons 
of this heresy think that Dionysius agreed with them, let them also acknowl- 
edge the term consubstantial which he used in his Defence, and that the Son 
is of the substance of the Father, and also His eternity." 

12 In the way of good sense, good temper, and real Christian charity and 
moderation, I doubt whether the early Church affords a better lesson than the 
conduct of Dionysius as described in Euseb. vii. 24. 



292 History of the Church. 

place. He had the honor of being the first Bishop of Alexan- 
dria who sealed his testimony with his blood. 

The internal troubles common to all the Churches at this 

period, and which the Egyptian Church under a succession of 

able and saintly Bishops had rather pruned and kept 

Troubles. J f 1 r 

down than really eradicated, began now to show them- 
selves in the utmost rankness and profusion. 

The See of Lycopolis, for some reason now unknown, had 

an influence in Egypt second only to that of Alexandria. Mele- 

tius, its incumbent at the end of the third century, 

Meletian J 

Schism, was accused of apostasy, and in a Council holden at 

A,D. 30I. 

Alexandria was convicted and deposed. He refused 
to submit to the sentence. Availing himself, as was common 
with schismatics, of the strong and general sympathy for austere 
views, he broke off into a sect ; adopted a narrow platform akin 
to Novatianism ; and proceeded to consecrate new Bishops for 
all the principal Sees. The schism made itself acceptable by 
some peculiar rites ; by religious dances ; by promises of a 
Heaven suited to gross and fanciful conceptions. Among its 
favorers, for awhile, was that restless and subtle spirit, the cele- 
itsrafiid brated Arius. Its rapid spread may be accounted for 
spread. - n p art ^ ^e persuasive talents of its leaders. It would 
seem to indicate, however, that in Egypt as in North Africa, 
and indeed in all parts of the world, the great mass of believ- 
ers were but partially instructed ; 13 and that the seeds of heresy 
— crude notions, half-knowledge, one-sided views, and vague and 
restless emotionalism — must in the nature of things have been 
widely disseminated. 

All this might have led to more extensive revolts, if a vent 
Monach- f° r tne errant enthusiasm so common in those times had 
^TeutV^In- not been providentialy afforded, in the spontaneous 
chorets.etc. r ^ se an( j g row th of monastic or anchorite establish- 
ments in the deserts of the Thebais. In reference to this move- 

J 3 Alexandria, in fact, with its high-toned, refined, and subtle orthodoxy, 
and with its essentially Greek spirit, must have been veiy far in advance of the 
simple (and perhaps sensuous) faith of the remoter districts. 



The Egyptian Church. 293 

ment, considering that it arose among the Laity altogether, the 
course of the Church was eminently tolerant. The Therapeu- 
tse I4 of the first century, " citizens of Heaven upon earth," were 
probably a communistic Christian sect. Frontonius and seventy 
companions led the life of recluses, in the middle of the second 
century. But when the calamitous times of Decius and his 
successors made common life a burden almost too great for 
human strength; when the feeling that things were coming 
rapidly to an end, 13 was wellnigh universal; men fled from 
society in all directions, so that the deserts of Egypt and 
Mount Sinai became populous with Anchorets. It was Free 

a free and spontaneous movement, the more remark- Movement - 
able that it sprang up at a period when the Church, by her 
frequent services, by her exact discipline, and by her continuous 
struggle with ascetic extravagances, seemed committed against 
all forms of eccentricity, or even, it may be said, of private 
judgment in religion. 

S. Antony, the father of Christian Monachism, was an emi- 
nent example of the spontaneousness of this movement. 16 
Brought up in the seclusion of a pious home, and so 

• ^- Antony. 

averse to the society of youths of his own age that his 
parents though rich never sent him to school, he was left an 
orphan at twenty, without a friend or companion except his 
sister, and almost without an acquaintance in the world. One 
day, in church, not long after the death of his parents, 
he heard the words of the Lord, " If thou wilt be per- 
fect, go sell that thou hast and give to the poor. ' ' He obeyed 

J 4See Book I. cli. iv. On this subject generally, see Sozomen, Eccles. 
Hist. i. 11-14. 

j s S. Cyprian's EpistoL ad Demetrianum contains an elaborate argument 
to that effect. 

16 Sozomen, Eccles. Hist. i. 13; S. Athanas. Vita S. Anton. This work 
is possibly spurious, or more or less interpolated. It is none the less, how- 
ever, a most instructive sketch of a peculiar religious experience, well worthy 
of attention on the part of thoughtful Christian men of every age of the 
world. For an appreciative though brief account of S. Antony, see Hase 
Hist, of the Christian Church, \ 65. 



294 History of the Church. 

the Divine injunction to the letter. 17 He went home, sold his 
goods, and distributed the proceeds to his neighbors and to the 
poor, reserving only a small portion for the necessities of his 
sister. Shortly after, when again in church, he felt himself par- 
ticularly addressed by the words, "Take no thought for the 
morrow." His conscience smote him. He had been taking 
thought ! As soon as he returned home, therefore, he dis- 
tributed his sister's portion along with the rest of his property; 
providing for her, however, in a kind of religious house. 18 His 
Reality o/ subsequent course was in accordance with this begin- 
ning. Having heard, that if a man did not work, 
neither should he eat, he made manual labor a part of his 
exercises. In the same spirit, he endeavored to comply literally 
with the precept, " Pray without ceasing." Whatever his mind 
took up from the letter of Scripture was carried straightway 
into practice, and so became indelibly stamped upon it. A 
more complete reaction from the ultra-spiritual and ultra- 
intellectual tendencies of the doctors of the Alexandrine School 
cannot easily be imagined. 

It was a life, in fact, almost as much apart from the com- 
munion of the Church as from the ordinary ways of the world : 
a Life a life strictly and entirely between the soul and God. 
%omthe Of th e experiences of such a religion no one can be a 
^ndthe ^ t Judge, b ut ne wno nas t> een i n some way a subject 
church. £ them. It is enough to notice, therefore, without 
philosophizing upon a state in which outward and inward im- 
pressions seem to have been completely blended, that for some 
fifteen years in his cell, and for twenty years in the closer seclu- 

z 7 One of the latest examples of this intense individnalisi7i in religion is 
afforded in that curious and edifying book, " The Lord's Dealings with 
George Miiller:" — a most remarkable man and singularly endowed with the 
" gift " of faith, if, as there is no good reason to doubt, his account of himself 
be true. 

18 His sistei appears to have been like-minded with himself. When the 
two met again at a later period, she was at the head of a flourishing sister- 
hood. 



The Egyptian Church. 295 

sion of his castle/ 9 Antony battled with fleshly, worldly, and 
demoniacal temptations; 20 tamed his strong passions Antonys 
and strong fancy into obedience to a still stronger Battles. 
will ; and acquired a fame which obliged him at last to receive 
disciples, and to show his face again to his innumerable eager 
admirers. When he issued from his retreat, it was observed 
with astonishment that he was as hale and youthful in appear- 
ance — neither fat nor lean, but with a light in his eye and a 
ruddy glow on his cheek — as when he originally entered. 

What was more remarkable, he was singularly polished, quiet 
and self-possessed in his manners. The grace of eloquence was 
on his lips. To those who gathered around him he 

His power 

spake affectionately in the Egyptian tongue: 21 "Let- as a 

P7* 6 cccIi By 

ters, my children, are good for our instruction ; but 

it is an excellent thing to exhort and teach one another. Do 

you, then, as children, tell your father what things you have 

learned ; and I in turn, as your elder, will give you the fruits 

of my experience." To his persuasive preaching, 

miracles, it is said, were sometimes added. "The 

Lord healed many, in answer to his prayers ; and many were 

delivered from unclean spirits." 22 He consoled the afflicted, he 

J 9 His first place of refuge was among the tombs, his second in a ruined 
castle, a haunt of serpents and wild beasts. 

20 The tempter brought before him images of the wealth and worldly 
pleasures he had given up ; assumed the shape of a beautiful woman ; and 
when all this failed, filled his cell with demons who assumed beastly forms, 
and left him almost dead from physical exhaustion. On one occasion, in the 
desert, the fiend threw a discus, at him; which when the saint contemplated 
in surprise to see such a missile in such a place, it slowly melted into air and 
disappeared. Vit. Anton. 

21 There is reason to suppose that in most of the provinces of the Empire 
ordinary teaching was still confined to the Greek and Latin languages. In 
North Africa, for example, it was a matter of rejoicing, even as late as the 
times of S. Augustine, that one Presbyter could be found who could speak in 
the Punic tongue. On this, see Miinter. Primord. Eccl. Afric. cap. v. In 
the East, however, the Liturgies were translated into various tongues. 

22 Whatever may be thought of the miracles of S. Antony, his modesty and 
humility in connection with them are worthy of admiration. Thus Marcianus, 



296 History of the Church. 

reconciled enemies, he composed differences, by simply urging 
upon men that "'nothing in this world is to be preferred to the 
love of Christ." 

With such a leader, the cell or the laura soon became more 
congenial to many minds than the social joys of the Church. 
The Among the savage crags and the awful desolation of 

the mountainous region between the Red Sea and the 
Nile a refuge was provided for those redundant souls who, with 
a strong desire to do, but an irresistible propensity to overdo, 
are apt to be jostled from the walks of common life, and are 
condemned either to inaction or to eccentric courses of their 
own. The Christian Church did not originate this movement : 
it belongs, in fact, to natural religion. She saw in it, how- 
ever, some elements of good : and when, in the Dioclesian 
Antony in persecution, the strong man of the desert came down 
Alexandria. tQ Alexandria to see how it fared with his brethren — 
" prepared," as he expressed it, "either to combat himself or 
to behold the combatants;" or when, soberly and prudently, 
with the gentleness of a woman, 23 he ministered to the wants of 
New the Confessors in prison — the very heathen respecting 

Om/esCr- the sanctity of his character : then she began to glory 
ship. - n hgj. Anchorets almost as much as in her noble army 

of Martyrs. The system, in fact, was but another form of con- 

a military prefect, came to his door, and was very importunate in his request 
that he would cast out a devil which possessed his daughter. The saint at 
length showed himself and said : " Why criest thou to me ? I also am but a 
man. If thou believest in Christ whom I serve, then pray to God, and it 
shall be done." Then the man believed, and called upon Christ, and his 
daughter was healed. Vit. Anton. 

2 3 There was a peculiar amiability about him. In the desert, he not only 
raised food for himself, but cultivated little patches of ground for the benefit 
of chance travellers. The wild beasts at first gave him trouble, by trampling 
on his corn. But one day he laid his hand gently on one of them, and said 
to the rest : " Why trouble a man who does you no harm ? Depart, in the 
name of the Lord." Afterwards they gave him no further trouble. I can- 
not but think that it was this sweetness of temper, united to a dauntless cour- 
age and immovable self-possession, that secured him immunity in Alexandria 
when less eminent believers were in constant peril. 



The Egyptian Church. 297 

fessorship. As one field closed by the cessation of persecution, a 
new field opened to that spirit of earnest emulation and eccen- 
tric heroism, 24 which might be employed for good or might be 
perverted to evil ; but which, for good or evil, Avas one of the 
strong elements of the practical religion of the times. 

The Dioclesian persecution raged terribly in Alexandria, 
and in all parts of Egypt. The martyrs were more numerous 
and more eminent than at any period before. It rests The great 
on the testimony of eye-witnesses, that the sufferers Persecutlon - 
were not only scourged and put to death ; but, in cases with- 
out number, were stretched on the rack, suspended by the 
hands, torn with pincers, seared with molten lead, roasted over 
a slow fire, suffocated with smoke, deprived of their eyes or 
other members, and, in short, treated with every inhumanity 
that the most fiendish cruelty could suggest. 25 Peter, the Bishop 
of Alexandria, was among the last that suffered. When he was 
thrown into prison, his people collected in such numbers about 
his place of confinement that the soldiers who had been sent 
to put him to death were unable to enter by the door : but 
taking advantage of a dark and stormy night, they 
made a hole through one of the walls of his cell. The of Peter, 

... -, . . A - D - 3 11 - 

martyr understood their intention and aided them in 
it. Making the sign of the cross and saying, "Better that we 
should die than expose the people to danger, "'he stretched 
forth his head to the executioner, and it was stricken off. He is 
named by the Greeks " the Seal and end of the Martyrs." 

It is said that before his death, in consequence of a vision 
he had seen, he solemnly warned the Church against Arius, who 

2 4 The spirit of emulation — the desire to do something that no one had 
done before — breathes through the annals of the Eremites. Thus the Vita S. 
Antonii begins : " A glorious contest have ye undertaken, in endeavoring to 
equal or even to surpass the life of the Egyptian monks." In the same way, 
S. Antony learned, late in life, that there was one man on earth his superior 
in asceticism : namely, Paul, who had lived ninety years out of sight or hear- 
ing of man, with only a palm-tree for shelter and meat and clothing. S. 
Antony visited him in time to be a witness of his death. 

2 5 Euseb. Eccl. Hist. viii. 

1 1^ 



298 History of the Church. 

lay at that time under sentence of excommunication. His suc- 
• . cessor Achillas, however, paid no attention to the warn- 

Arius and t x 

Alexander, ing. Arius was not only absolved and admitted to the 

A.D. 312. . J 

Priesthood, but, being set over the Church of Baucahs 
— one of the oldest and wealthiest in the city — he became, on 
the death of Achillas, a prominent candidate for the vacant 

episcopal chair. But in this he failed. Alexander 

A new 

storm was elected by unanimous consent. This disappoint- 

gathering. 

ment, it was believed, cast a decided gloom upon the 
soul of Arius ; and is regarded as the beginning of that great 
cloud, fraught with ages of mischief and dissension, which, at 
the close of this period of history and at the opening of the 
next, we find overshadowing the most nourishing portions of 
the Church. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE CHURCHES IN GENERAL. 



In that wonderful Epic which was for so many ages the Bible 
of the old classic world, and which next to the true Bible has 
The great entered most into the mind of the European nations 
plc since, the Hero of the poem appears only at the be- 

ginning of the Action and at ks close : his absence the mean- 
while giving occasion for the development of the "excellence" 
first of one warrior, 1 then of another, and so on through all the 
changeful issues of the fight, till the "gift," not of each leader 
only, 2 but of each nation, tribe, or other division of the host 
has been duly exercised and brought out to view. 

1 The apiGTeia of Diomede, of Agamemnon, etc. Iliados, v. xi., etc. 

2 The fact that " every good gift" cometh down from above is recognized 
by Homer in the persons of the most frivolous of his heroes and of the wisest 
and most earnest. Paris reminds Hector of it (//. iii. 66) ; Ulysses com- 
mends it to the rude minds of the Phseacian youths [Odyss. viii. 167); it 



The Churches in General. 299 

This is a summary of what may be called the Divine plan of 
History in general ; more especially of the History of the 
Church of God. The Word is the Alpha and Omega 

r b A Type of 

of it, the author and finisher, the beginning and the church 

, , • -1 i History. 

end. It is only, therefore, at the opening and the 
close that this Divine Word is made fully apparent. In the 
long interval between, man is the visible, and to the mere eye 
of flesh the principal, worker ; the all-sustaining Arm being 
manifested occasionally, however, and to a greater or less de- 
gree, at those eventful epochs? properly so called, which bring 
certain periods to a close, and so typify or prefigure the full 
appearing of God's Kingdom at the end of time. 

The story of the First Three Centuries is but a minute por- 
tion of that wondrous plan ; the mere infancy of a manhood, 
the real growth of which even yet (it may be) has Lesson of 
hardly more than begun. But being beyond doubt a tht ' $£ee 
living portion, and in some respects singularly com- Centurtes - 
plete in itself, it exhibits more clearly than any other period the 
essential features of the whole, and may be rightly taken, there- 
fore, as the best representative of it. Its first age, ThePente- 
accordingly, is eminently that of the Divine Arm laid costalA s e - 
bare to view. In His incarnate Presence, or in mighty demon- 
strations of spiritual power, the Hero of the epos Himself ap- 
pears. Then follows a long and weary season of seeming 
absence. The great Sower has sown the seed, and gone His 
way to His rest ; 4 the seed being left, as it were, to the natural 
fertility of the soil. Men, therefore, become the prom- The Age of 
inent actors. First singly, then in groups or schools, Schools. 
then in local, provincial, or national Churches, they appear 

flows more sweetly and religiously from that most faultless of the creatures of 
human genius, the daughter of Alcinous [Odyss. vi. 189). Herodotus also is 
a faithful witness to this truth. 

3 Epoch, — a holding up, a pause, a stop. It is remarkable, that in the 
great field of physical history which has been opened by modern science, 
epochs are as manifest as in the lives of races or of nations. See Hugh Mil- 
ler's Testimony of the Rocks. 

* S. Mark, iv. 27. 



300 History of the Church. 

successively before us ; and in defeat 5 rather than in victory, 
The Age of each does his utmost to sustain the cause. Finally, 
when patience has had her perfect work ; when the 
aristeia of each lower agent has been displayed ; when the 
weakness and incompetency of the arm of flesh has been made 
sufficiently apparent : then, a marked Providential deliverance 
closes the first act of the drama ; the Roman world submits to 
the standard of the Cross ; and the first earnest is afforded of 
that crowning victory, the day and hour of which neither man 
nor angel can determine. 

But the Roman world, which was the first battle-field and 
the scene of the first great victory of the Gospel, was merely a 
The Roman narrow belt of highly civilized and intellectual nations 
around the shores of the Mediterranean ; and in the 
account already given of Carthage, Rome, Alexandria, and An- 
tioch, with incidental mention of other Churches, the story of 
the first three centuries is wellnigh told. So far as the working 
out of any great principle is concerned — whether of doctrine, 
discipline, or worship — little remains to be added. A brief 
notice of the other Churches, however, following the order in 
which they present themselves on the map of the world, may 
help the reader to form a more distinct conception of the state 
of Christianity at this critical period of its history, and to ap- 
preciate more fully the nature and extent of the progress that 
had been so far made. 

In the provinces of North Africa already spoken of in this 

Book, extending from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to Cyrene 

on the east, and bounded on the south by Mount 

The Belt of ' J 

theMedi- Atlas and the Libyan desert, there were by the end 

terranean. . 

of the third century at least one hundred episcopal 
sees, and possibly a much larger number. 6 The Southern bor- 

5 2 Cor. vi. 9, io. 

6 In the beginning of the fourth century the Donatists could bring together 
a Council of 270 Bishops. In S. Augustine's time there were 466 Bishop- 
rics. The multiplication of dioceses was greater in Africa than elsewhere, 
the Donatists having started it, and the Catholics following their exaronle in 



The Churches in General. 301 

ders of this narrow strip were exposed to the inroads of barbar- 
ous tribes, among which the Gospel had made little North 
or no progress. It may be doubted, indeed, whether Africa. 
in the provinces themselves it had extended much further than 
it could be carried through the medium of the Latin tongue. 
Next in order towards the East, alonsr the same belt, 

Egypt. 

come Libya, Pentapohs, and Egypt, covering an area 
about three times as large as England, dependent more or less 
on the See of Alexandria, and governed by about one hundred 
Bishops. In Nubia and Abyssinia there were probably Nubia. 
some imprisoned rays of Pentecostal light, but of the A ^ SS2nza - 
state of Christianity in those countries we have no certain 
knowledge. Arabia, exclusive of Arabia Petrsea, num- 

Arabia. 

bered twenty-one dioceses, composed for the most part 
of clusters of village Churches, of which the chief See was 
Bostra, sometimes known under the name of Philadelphia. The 
missionary journey that Pantaenus is said to have made 

India. 

to India, in which he discovered some traces of the 
labors of S. Bartholomew and S. Thomas, is supposed by many 
to have been merely to some part of Arabia. On this point, 
however, there is room for little more than a baseless conject- 
ure. Passing towards the North, along the Asiatic 

Pol l&st in c . 

section of the same belt of the Mediterranean, we 
come next to Palestine, including Arabia Petraea, in which we 
find some forty-eight dioceses, dependent more or less on Jeru- 
salem or Caesarea. 

The former of these Churches, which we left under the new 
name of ^Elia at the beginning of its Gentile succession in 
Hadrian's time, continued to cherish with some pride Jerusalem. 
the name, and it is said the chair, of S. James ; and chair of 
was regarded with no little reverence as the oldest of 5 ' J ames - 
the Mother Churches. In the history of her Bishops there 

self-defence. In the rest of this chapter, my object is merely to give a gen- 
eral view ; and, the data being imperfect, I have to rely for the most part on 
conjecture. See Bingham's Antiqttities, Book IX.; and Maurice's Vindication 
of the Primitive Church, etc. London, 1682. 



302 History of the Church. 

seems to be more of the conventional type of saintliness, and 
perhaps somewhat more of the marvellous, than appears else- 
Nardssus, where. Narcissus, the thirtieth in order from S. James, 
a.d. i 9S . j iac > not a £ ew m j rac ] es attributed to him. On one 

occasion, at a vigil just before the Easter Feast, the lights were 
going out in the Church, but were restored — miraculously, it was 
thought — by the Bishop's ordering water to be brought and 
poured into the lamps. This holy man was a rigid enforcer of 
His discipline. Offended at his strictness, three wretches 

were found to trump up an accusation against him, 
which they even went so far as to confirm by an oath. One of 
them prayed that he might perish by fire, another that his body 
might be eaten by a plague, a third that he might lose his sight, 
if their witness against the Bishop should be found untrue. 
Narcissus shrank from the blight of a calumny thus fearfully 
attested, and secretly retired to a hermit life. But the inno- 
cence of his character was fully vindicated. The accusers per- 
ished according to the tenor of their oaths ; and at length, 
after three successors in the episcopate had in the meantime 
done their work and departed to their rest, Narcissus appeared 
again as one risen from the dead, and at the request of the holy 
Alexander, brethren resumed the chair he had abandoned. Alex- 
a.u. 212. an d erj a disciple of Origen, and Bishop at that time of 
a Church in Cappadocia, happening to come to Jerusalem in 
fulfilment of a vow, was seized upon by the faithful of the Holy 
City and installed as coadjutor to their aged chief; the irregu- 
larity being covered, it was thought, by a Divine communication 
through a dream or vision. 7 

This latter prelate proved to be a patron of learning and of 
learned men ; and added a handsome Library to the attractions 

of the Church in ^Elia. It was he who, in conjunction 

A Patron J 

of Learn- with Theoctistus of Csesarea, upheld the cause of Origen 

iltjr. 

against his Bishop Demetrius, and gave currency to the 
learning and perhaps to some of the vagaries of that gifted 
teacher. He died a martyr, as we have seen, in the Decian 

7 Euseb. vi. 9-1 1. 



The Churches in General. 303 

persecution. Hymenaeus, the second after him in order of suc- 
cession, took an active part in the proceedings against 

HymencEus. 

Paul of Samosata, and lived long enough to be person- 
ally known to Eusebius, the Church historian. 

The Churches in Palestine were distinguished by many noble 
"wrestlers" in the tenth persecution, whose merits have been 
more particularly recorded than is common with the Martyrs of 
martyrs of the early Church. 8 It is a hideous story of Palcsttne - 
imprisonments, tortures, and monstrous inhumanities, relieved 
only by the vivid faith and indomitable spirit of the sufferers. 
Wonderful was the steadfastness of those whose privilege it was 
to die for the Faith : more wonderful still the patient Lively 
and meek endurance of the much larger number, who tk?Mass°of 
were condemned to the mines, or to a crippled life, B ^evers. 
dependent on the charity of others in little better plight than 
themselves. But the greatest marvel of all was the buoyancy 
of hope that sustained the large and timid crowd who were too 
insignificant, or perhaps too cautious, to share in the sufferings 
and the glory of the brave Confessors. The Churches were 
closed. Public services were suspended. The cemeteries and 
all other kinds of Church property had been confiscated. The 
Clergy were in prison, or in the mines, or in obscure hiding- 
places. Heathen worship was revived with the utmost splendor ; 
and wherever one might look, the Church, as an organized body, 
seemed to be almost extinct. Yet when a lull of a few days 
occurred in the times of Maximin, and a deceitful peace tempted 
the Christians once more to show themselves, the effect, we are 
told, was like a flash of lightning. 9 All places of worship were 
suddenly crowded ; the cemeteries were thronged ; hymns and 
songs of joy and mutual congratulations everywhere 
resounded. It was like a tree breaking out into blossom upon the 

Heathen. 

in the midst of a winter s frost. So striking was the 
spectacle of single-hearted gladness thus suddenly exhibited, 
that many of the heathen beholding it, were led by a sympa- 
thetic feeling to attach themselves to the Church. 

8 Euseb. Martyrs of Palestine. 9 Euseb. ix. I. 



304 History of the Church. 

Caesarea, not inferior to Jerusalem in influence or actual 

power, is known at this period chiefly for the countenance given 

to Origen by its Bishop Theoctistus, and for the part 

taken by Theotecnus in the case of the heretic Paul. 

It was also the scene of some of the most fearful of the atrocities 

of the great persecution. Further on towards the north comes 

Tyre, memorable for a noble church edifice, destroyed 

and splendidly restored during the same trying times. 

There Origen laid down his weary life ; there also, under the 

leading of Methodius, began an endless series of assaults upon 

the memory of the Alexandrine teacher. 

The Syrian Church, which has repeatedly been before us 

in connection with Antioch, extended from the Isle of Cyprus 

on the west to Mesopotamia on the east ; and in its 

Syria. 

different provinces eighty Bishops, more or less, might 
have been counted at this period. 

In the vast Eastern world that lay beyond the borders of the 
Roman Empire, the signs of an early knowledge of the Gospel 

are but few and faint. Edessa had been from Apostolic 
further times a centre of light to Mesopotamia. Armenia was 

East. 

converted at the end of the third century by Gregory, 
the Illuminator. Persia likewise received some rays of the 
Truth. There, however, the progress of the Gospel was not 
only stayed for awhile, but was violently rolled back in the 
organized system and proselyting zeal of the great heresy of the 
Manichaeans. 

Next to Palestine, Asia Minor had been the elect field of the 
early growth of Religion, most of the writings of the NewTesta- 
Asia ment being addressed to believers in that region ; and 

Mtnor ' it was in one of its provinces, Asia Proconsularis or 
Asia Proper, that Catholic Christianity first assumed its type form 
Asia in the mystical seven Churches of the Revelation of 

Proper. g John. It was also the cradle of the most formidable 
heresies of the early Church. 10 Among the fanatical population 

10 Newman's Avians of the Fourth Century. 



The Churches in General. 305 

of Phrygia, Montanus was born, and after him Novatianus, the 
great Schismatic. In other parts, Judaic and Gnostic 

Pit v y£tci , 

elements had been blended into their most seductive 
and most pernicious forms ; and the contest with these various 
errors had been further complicated by the unhappy strife about 
the Pascha, and by the rationalistic views of such men as Praxeas 
and Noetus. From these fiery trials the Churches of Saved so 
Asia Minor came out safe in the main, but not without asd y Fire - 
suffering loss in more ways than one. In fact, while the Churches 
in this region continued to be among the most populous and 
flourishing in Christendom, yet their long, and weary struggle 
seems in some measure to have benumbed their strength ; so that, 
after the first glorious era of S. John and his immediate disciples, 
their history is comparatively obscure and uninteresting. 

The whole extent of country was about six hundred miles 
in length by three hundred in breadth, embracing, according to 
the earliest notices, some three hundred and eighty- 

' 1 Extent 

eight dioceses, the greater part of which, probably, of the 

Country . 

were established during the first three centuries. Of 
its various provinces the majority are alluded to in the New 
Testament, and profited by the labors of the chief Apostles. 
Bithynia seems to merit particular notice as being the 

..,.,., Bithynia. 

scene of the persecution mentioned in Pliny s famous 

letter to Trajan, and as being the starting-point of the last great 

war against Christianity: Nicomedia, its chief city, a 

Nicomedia. 

place on the Propontis about fifty miles east of the 

present site of Constantinople, having been chosen by Diocletian 

as the imperial abode. 

During the Decian times, Pontus and other parts of Asia 
Minor were thrown into a state of confusion hardly short of 
anarchy, by the terrible inroads of the Goths. Among Gothic 
the Christians, many were forced by these barbarians Invasion - 
to deny the Faith. On the other hand, the Gospel asserted its 
power ; and the beginnings were seen of that wonderful order- 
ing of Providence, by which nations to whom the light had not 
been carried were brought by a secret guidance within the sphere 



30 6 History of the Church. 

of the light, 11 and the way was opened for a civilization which 
(perhaps) the effete Roman world was no longer capable of 
receiving. 

Passing from Asia Minor into the European provinces, there 
is little of any special interest in the annals of the Churches of 
Macedonia, Macedonia and Achaia; and still less in what was 
becoming slowly a part of Christendom, the region 
that extends from Constantinople to Sardica, and from the 
^Egean Sea to the Danube. Corinth, which kept its place at 
the head of the Churches of Achaia, was adorned in the second 
century by the pastoral labors of Dionysius, one of the 
of Corinth, wisest of Church teachers, whose writings are admi- 

A D. I76. . , L 

rably but too briefly summed up in the History of 
Eusebius. 12 He opposed the early inroads of the encratite 
spirit. Writing to Pinytus, the Bishop of the Church of the 
Gnossians, he exhorted him not to impose itpon the brethren a 

burden in regard to parity too great for their strength. 

He opposes * r J & J & f 

the Encra- but to have consideration for human infirmity. To 

tite School. . i-i 

which Pinytus answered, with the usual self-compla- 
cency of his austere school, that men should be fed with strong 
meat, milk being fit only for babes. The substitution of cant 
for sober and good sense is an expedient not peculiar to modern 
times. It has been in all ages the bane of true religion. An- 
other evil is alluded to by Dionysius in the curious fact that 
even before his death his own writings had become interpolated 
and corrupted. Those who had a craving for " strong meat" 
mixed the "milk " -of older and wiser teachers with stimulating 
elements of their own, to render it more palatable. Several 
other matters of interest were discussed by the same Dionysius. 
In the regions of Macedonia and Achaia, with Crete 
and some other islands, there may have been as many 
as fifty dioceses at the end of the third century. 

We pass on to Italy, containing "anciently some of the 
smallest and some of the largest dioceses in the world, and yet 

11 Sozomen, ii. 6. 

12 Euseb. iv. 23. .See also Routh, Reliqu. Sacr. vol. i. 



The Churches in General. 307 

# 
the same species of episcopacy preserved in them all ; the Bishop 

of Eugubium, as S. Jerome words it, being ejusdem 

.'" . r ■ Italy. 

meriti and ejusdem sacerdotii, — of the same merit and 
priesthood 'with the Bishop of Rome." 13 In one of the earliest 
Roman Synods on the Paschal controversy, there were but four- 
teen Bishops present, — few of the Councils at that period being 
able to muster more. Within a century after, Italy could num- 
ber more than one hundred Sees. Dioceses were numerous also 
in Sicily and other islands of the Western Mediterranean. 

The Church of Spain gloried in S. James the Greater, as its 
Apostolic founder : 14 a story full of difficulties, which the testi- 
mony of zealous but modern Spanish writers cannot 

Spain. 

remove. However this may be, we find it a flourishing 
part of Christendom in the times of S. Cyprian. At the end 
of the third century it stands out, in its austere Council of 
Elvira, as infected more or less with the taint of Novatianism. 

The Greco-Gallic foundation in Lyons and Vienne suffered 
terribly in the fifth and sixth persecutions. The Church sur- 
vived these storms, however ; and about the middle of 
the third century its growth received a new impulse 
from the mission of seven Bishops (according to Gregory of 
Tours), 15 who established themselves respectively in Paris, Aries, 

J 3 Bingham, ix. v. 16. The Bishops of Italy and the isles adjacent are all 
enumerated in Italia Sacra, etc., auct. D. Ferdinand. Ughello Florentin. 
Venetiis, 17 17. 

14 Ferreras argues stoutly for it : " The preaching of that blessed 
Apostle in Spain was confirmed by the decision of the Roman Church . . . 
but though it was even mentioned in the Breviary by the order of the blessed 
Pope Pius V., Cardinal Baronius denied it in the 10th vol. of his Annals. 
Tl is captious reasoning caused Clement VIII. to have it taken out of the Bre- 
viary. Nevertheless, when a great number of writers has demonstrated the 
fallacy of Baronius, and when the Spanish nation and its Catholic kings had 
made a solemn protest against that reform, the matter was reopened; and after 
the mature and searching examination usually given in such cases by the 
Holy See, the judgment was reversed, and by order of Urban VIII. the 
preaching of the holy Apostle in Spain was reinserted among the lessons of 
the Breviary." Hist. Gen. d 1 Espagne : Ferreras — D'Hermilly. 

^See Gieseler, \ 57, n. 2, Gallia Christian. Pariss. 17 16. 



308 History of the Church. 

Toulouse, and other central places. One of the seven, Diony^ 
sius of Paris, was confounded by subsequent tradition with 
Dionysius the Areopagite, converted by S. Paul. The great 
Council held in Aries, at the close of this period, is a satisfac- 
tory proof of the thriving condition of the Gallican 

The Rhitie. <-.-.. 

Church. About the same time we find proof of the 
existence of Bishops on the Rhine and in Vindelicia. 16 

The Gospel preached in Britain during the Apostolic times, 
and probably by S. Paul or some of his companions, 17 must have 
Britain. lingered in the island ; for in the days of Eleutherus 
Prince the Roman Bishop, Lucius, a petty prince, sent an 
Lucms. embassage to Rome in quest of Christian preachers. 18 
In the spread of truth, the supply always in a measure precedes 
the demand. It is probable, therefore, that there was within 
the island of Britain knowledge enough of Christianity to 
produce among the wiser princes a wish for more. Eleutherus 
granted the request ; and at the end of this era the blood of 
several martyrs in the Tenth Persecution, and the presence of 
three Bishops at the Council of Aries, witnessed the success of 
their evangelic labors. 

Thus a belt around the Mediterranean Sea, averaging some 
two hundred miles in breadth, and occupied by the most vigorous 
and enlightened nations of the old Roman world, was 
the field of the first struggle and the first victory of the 
Gospel. But in reference to this region and this period it may be 
said most truly that the Kingdom of God came not with observa- 
tion. It was for the most part a silent and unrecorded growth. 
So uncertain are the materials for forming a correct judgment of 
its extent in reference to the entire population, and so contra- 
dictory in some respects are the data usually appealed to, that 
from one point of view the lowest estimates may appear too 

16 Gieseler, \ 57, nn. 3, 5. 

r 7 Stillingfleet, Orig. Briton, 

18 Bede, Eccl. Hist. ch. iv. Stillingfleet combats this tradition fas il 
seems to me) on very narrow grounds. In Britain, as in Gaul, there may 
easily have been several successive foundations. 



Church Growth and Life. 309 

high, 19 while from another the most liberal calculation seems 
hardly to give room for all the requirements of the problem. 
In such a case the middle ground assumed by most modern 
writers has little more to commend it than either of the two 
extremes. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CHURCH GROWTH AND LIFE. 



On the death of Valerian, the Church had rest from perse- 
cution for a period of forty years. Gallienus acknowledged it as 
a religio licita, — a sect entitled to legal toleration. GaiUenus, 
That this, however, was not an absolute security against A,D ' 2(5 °' 
heathen violence, was shown in the case of one Marinus in 
Palestine, who being a prominent candidate for the office of 
centurion in the army, was accused for his Christian faith by 
the opposite party, and was on that account cast into prison 
and beheaded. The reign of Claudius and the first Aureiian, 
four years of Aurelian were still more favorable to the A ' D ' 27 °" 
Christian cause : and though an edict of persecution put forth 
by the latter in the fifth year of his reign created a momentary 
panic, yet its execution being arrested by the sudden Diocletian, 
death of the Emperor, the rest of the century, includ- AD ' 2S4 ' 
ing the greater part of the reign of Diocletian, was a season 
of unwonted peace. 

But with every lull in the storm of persecution, the quiet but 
broad and steady progress of Christianity became more apparent. 
The time had gone by when its influence could be 

Progress 

confined to the bosoms of the devoted few. Its doc- of the 

trine, more diffusive than its discipline, had penetrated 

the palace, the senate, the camp, every place in fact but the 

J 9 In this question, much depends on the force we allow to rhetorical 
expressions of some of the Fathers. Where statistics are concerned, rhetoric, 
as a general rule, is extremely unreliable. 



3 1 o History of the Church. 

theatres and temples ; had gone beyond the borders of the Roman 
Among aii Empire; and was becoming so entwined with men's 

interests and affections, that society could no longer 
strike it without inflicting wounds more or less serious upon itself. 
Had this growth of the Church been tenfold more rapid 
than it was, it would have been vastly more easy to account for 
Growth on philosophic principles ; history supplying instances 
°churck enough of sects overrunning large portions of the 
slow ' earth, and gaining a dominant power, in the space of 

one or two generations. Thus Mohammedanism, for example 
— a great martial impulse among a people intensely martial — 
swept on to a victorious position upon the swell of a single tide. 
But the Gospel could boast of no such sudden, uninterrupted 
and overwhelming triumphs. To win the first and lowest 
Her Ser- stage of the promised victory ; to rise from a position 
vant Form. Q £ soc j a j degradation to one of ordinary security for life 
and limb ; required ten generations of obscure and persevering 
struggle. Only here and there, during all this period, did the 
Church ever appear in other than the servant form. The world 
the meanwhile was continually agitated : nation rising against 
nation, and kingdom against kingdom ; dynasties passing away, 
philospohies and religions changing, the Empire becoming more 
and more a sort of chronic revolution. Yet amid all the oppor- 
tunities thus recurring, Christians alone never struck a blow. 

During a period in which millions of lives were lost in 
Patient religious insurrections, the Church alone never for a 

Waiting. 

moment raised the standard of revolt or change. The 
great Conspiracy alone — for as such the heathen regarded it — 
never conspired, never rebelled ; never threw the weight of a 
feather into the scale by which political destiny was decided. 
Now a faith which could survive so long a period of depres- 
sion is without parallel in the history of successful religious 
The movements : it makes the problem of the Church's 

without triumph so unprecedented, that to attempt to explain 
Precedent. - t on or( j{ nar y principles is simply to ignore what the 
nature of the problem is. 



Church Growth and Life. 311 

Accordingly, of the five chief causes assigned by a celebrated 
historian/ not one is in any way peculiar to the Crmrch. They 
are equally applicable to one or other of the heresies 
with which she had to contend. In zealous abhorrence Five 

Causes. 

of idolatry ; in confident expectation of a Judgment 
and Millennium ; in the profession of miraculous endowments ; 
in ascetic and enthusiastic virtues ; and finally, in a polity popu- 
lar, flexible, and stable in its character, the system of Montanus 
had a perceptible advantage : besides all which, being later on the 
ground, and starting free from the encumbrance of Judaic ante- 
cedents, it was in a position to avail itself of the experience 
and to profit by the errors of its hated rival. If such causes, 
therefore, are to be deemed sufficient, Montanism ought to have 
become the dominant religion. 

Another glaring fallacy of the same historian is, that, while 
he takes delight in exposing the folly, inconsistency, and extrav- 
agance of the primitive believers, and proves inciden- Another 
tally that all these things were scandals to the heathen, fallacy. 
he yet manages to divert them from their true bearing upon the 
question of the Church's growth. Now victories, of course, may 
sometimes be achieved in despite of weakness. It is obvious, 
however, that in proportion to the amount of weakness proved 
against a conquering system, the difficulty increases of account- 
ing philosophically for the prosperity of that system ; and the 
necessity of discovering an extraordinary cause becomes more 
apparent. A heavy drag upon a ship is a sufficient reason to 
assign for the slowness of her progress ; but to speak of such a 
thing as if it helped in anyway to account for her progress, is as 
contrary to philosophy as to common-sense. 

But in this respect, the unfriendly hand which has done so 
much towards exposing the failings and infirmities strength 
of the first ages of believers, has rendered a real ser- per/SHin 
vice to the cause of Truth. No one has done more Weakness - 
than the philosophic historian of the Decline and Fall of the 

1 History of the Decline and' Fall of, the Roman Empire, by Edward 
Gibbon, Esq., with notes by die Rev. H. H. Milman, etc., chap. xvi. 



312 History of the Church. 

Roman Empire, to show that Christianity had not an easy- 
triumph. Its progress was slow : which gave abundant oppor- 
tunity for zeal to flag, and for opposition to rally. The contest 
victory not was n °t in a corner, or among half civilized races of 
inferior type : it was ill the centre of aesthetic, scien- 
tific, and philosophic culture. The prejudices to be overcome 
were not those of superstition merely : they were domestic, polit- 
ical, national, religious; interwoven into every thread of that 
great social web which human wisdom in its perfection had 
been for so many centuries engaged in weaving. The resist- 
ance, consequently, was not a mere fitful gust : it was the 
stubborn opposition of an intelligent, deep-rooted, and uncom- 
promising hatred. All this appears, unintentionally perhaps, 
but in colors as true as they are vivid, in the remarkable pic- 
ture drawn by the skeptical historian. A believer is under no 
necessity to impugn the substantial accuracy of the portrait. 
God manifest in flesh — a strength divine made perfect in 
strength in human weakness — is as prominent in the history as in 
weakness. the doctrine of the Church. The infidel delights in 
the exposure of that weakness; the believer prefers to contem- 
plate that strength : to appreciate fully the great problem of 
Church history, it is needful to look at both, and, whatever 
facts may be found to illustrate either, to admit them in a can- 
did though reverential spirit. 

Considered in its first and simplest aspect, the conflict of 
early Christianity was an intellectual battle betwixt Truth and 
Error. It was the sublime theology of the Gospel 
Truth and opposed to a system of superstitions which had lost 
what hold they ever had upon reason and conscience, 
and were cherished only as they ministered to pride and lust, 
or at best to conventional, social, or patriotic feelings. 

Of this essential weakness of the opposing side the Apolo- 
gist was not slow to avail himself. Heathen super- 

The 

Apologist _ stitions, in all their littleness and vileness, were held 

and Sophist. . . 

up to scorn as well as to merited reprobation. Eut 
weapons of ridicule were available on either side. The doctrine 



Church Growth and Life. 3 1 3 

of the Cross was literally a folly to the Greeks ;• while to the 
supercilious and worldly-minded Roman it appeared as a bale- 
ful and extravagant superstition. When a Celsus, 2 therefore, 
armed with the light weapons of an Epicurean indifference, 
gave loose rein to the spirit of mockery and profanity, weapons of 
ridiculing the Birth, the Death, the Resurrection, or Rzdlcuie - 
the Miracles recorded in the Gospels, he found no lack of hear- 
ers and admirers. Moreover, what could not be proven against 
the Truth was easily asserted. The follies and enormities of 
certain Gnostic sects afforded a handle against the body whose 
name they assumed ; and the heathen mind, from long famil- 
iarity with religion as a cloak for vice, could not only impute 
crimes seemingly incredible, but could give ready faith to the 
monstrous imputation. 

And even in the nobler phases of that long-continued strug- 
gle, when Christianity appeared on the positive side and pre- 
sented herself in her sublime theology or pure moral- 

° J r Wisdom 

ity, she was plausibly confronted by appeals to the against 

Wisdom. 

older system of the Hebrews, or to a philosophy which 
chameleon-like could assume the very color of the faith it 
labored to destroy. Such was the policy of the Neo-Platonic 
and other syncretistic schools. 3 A Plotinus or a Porphyry 
could adorn Platonism before the mirror of the Gospel, and 
then accuse the Gospel of borrowing from Platonism. Chris- 
tianity, in fact, had much in common with all sys- 

The 

terns of philosophy and religion. She availed herself Syncretistic 

Schools. 

readily of whatsoever things were true, honest, pure, 

lovely, and of good report in the learning of the times. When 

2 Origen against Celsus preserves several specimens of his style. In 
Minucius Felix the Roman spirit is better represented. For an account of 
the writers against Christianity, see Fabricii, Sahitaris Lux Evangelii, etc., 
cap. v. iii. 

3 The Dialogue of Minucius Felix, though it gives the victory to the 
right side, of course, does not make the victory too easy by putting only feeble 
arguments in the mouth of the adversary. It does full justice to the heathen 
side A like remark applies to Justin's dialogue with Trypho, and to Origen's 
quotations from Celsus. 



3 1 4 History of the Church, 

the votaries of human wisdom, therefore, pointed to what was 
" good and fair " in the lore of the ancient world, and said to 
the Church, as Israel said to Judah in their strife for the person 
of David, " We have ten parts in the king and more right than 
you," it was not easy to convince them that the one part of 
Judah, being the head and life, was of infinitely more impor- 
tance than the other parts together. The victory, in short, 
seemed to hang long in even balance. For it was not a simple 
contest between Truth and a sheer Lie. The Lie came to the 
battle armed in the attributes of Truth. The rods of the magi- 
cians could assume the shape and semblance of the Lawgiver's 
rod. If the latter at length proved superior, it was owing in 
vitality o/ the main to its greater vitality and endurance. The 
Truth. r(X j Q f Moses conquered by swallowing the other 
rods. 

Where the Apologist was deficient, the Martyr by his simple 
witness unto death was somewhat more successful. Yet even 

ii here the cause of Truth had a heavy drag upon it. To 
unto ESS a sober and philosophic Pliny, or to the acrid genius 
Blood. Q f ^ e g reat historian of the first Caesars, martyrdom 
seemed little else than a headstrong and penible absurdity. 4 
The witty Lucian could discern nothing in it but food for 
laughter. 5 And the confessors themselves, as we have seen 
often enough in the course of early Church history, were not 
always an ornament to their glorious vocation. It was, there- 
fore, only by little and little that the seed sown in blood took 
root and grew : only by oft-repeated mowings that the thin 
grass thickened into solid sward. It was not by martyrdoms, 
in short, for Error has its martyrs as well as Truth : 

Martyrs. 

but by ten generations of continuous martyrdom — the 
witness unto death being but the pledge of a life-long universal 
witness under social and political annoyances of every possible 
description — that the Church was enabled to prove herself in 
earnest ; to purge society of that fearful frivolity wherein, after 

^ " Inflexibilis obstinatio." s De morte Peregrini. 



Church GrowtJi and Life. 3 1 5 

all, the strength of heathenism lay ; and to outlive, if not to 
overcome, the power of misrepresentation. 

The Church's pride in her martyrs proved also a source of 
weakness, by opening the way to a sort of hero-worship ; these 
worthies being regarded as immediately exalted to a FoiHes and 
share of the reign and judgment-seat of Christ. 6 Scandals - 
Hence a fondness for relics. Hence a dangerous predilection 
for cemeteries as places of worship. Follies of this sort were 
more or less rebuked, and were not so bad as in later times. 
They were patent enough, however, to provoke the ridicule of 
the heathen, and to turn the edge of the Christian argument 
against polytheism and idolatry. What troubles were occasioned 
by the popular reverence for confessors, has been sufficiently 
noticed in previous chapters of this Book. 

The spread of the Gospel continued to be accompanied 
more or less with faith in the assistance of supernatural powers. 
Of miracles, indeed, in the strict sense of the word, 7 
there are few instances recorded, and those not attested Signs and 

. Wonders, 

by eye-witnesses ot the facts. Justin Martyr, one of 
the earliest of the Apologists, is chary in his appeals to evi- 
dences of that kind ; and though supernatural gifts are men- 
tioned both by him and by Irenseus and Tertullian as still sub- 
sisting in the Church, yet the instances alleged — the healing of 

6 The popular belief that Martyrs went at once to Heaven tended to 
something like worship of them as intercessors with God. S. Cyprian endeav- 
ors at least to put ^"this deification of them: "We believe indeed that the 
merits of the martyrs and the good works of the righteous avail much with the 
Judge ; but when the day of Judgment comes, when after the end of this 
world the people of Christ shall stand before His tribunal." In the same 
way, he insists upon the condition, on which the intercessions of the martyrs 
should be found available : " For the penitent, for the diligent, for the prayer- 
ful, He can graciously make acceptable what the martyrs have asked and 
what the priests have done." De Lapsis, 17, 36. See Tertull. De Pudicit. 
22; and Dionysius of Alexandria apud Euseb. vi. 42. 

7 Miracles, that is, which, the facts being admitted, must be ascribed 
immediately to the Power of God. See, on this subject, Douglas's Criterion, 
Farmer on Miracles, Kaye's Tertullian and Justin Martyr, and Middletons 
Free Enquiry. 



3 1 6 Histoiy of the Church, 

the sick* the cure of the bite of serpents, and the exorcising of 
demons — belong to a class of wonders which, without a minute 
knowledge of all the circumstances, or without the corroborat- 
ing evidence of signs less equivocal, no one feels constrained to 
charisms receive as Divine acts. The charisms ceased gradu- 
temporary. a ^jy as t j ie n eed of them ceased. 9 They pertained to 
the first planting rather than to the growth of the Church. So 
far as the like of them occurred in later times, they seem to be- 
long to that lower class of wonders, in which faith operates 
through 10 and not over or against the mysterious energies of 
nature. 

But for this latter class of wonders there may have been a 
real need in the age now under review. Each era of the world 
has its own spiritual and intellectual wants ; and a faith which 
aims to be useful, instinctively addresses itself to those wants, 
as commonly understood at the time. Now the world in which 
the early Christians moved, was one that believed in the reality 
The of demoniacal possessions. Hence a universal faith in 

*i3tk** ma gic and divination. Christians were on a level 
Exorcist. w ith their age in point of scientific knowledge. As to 
the agency of demons, they knew as much, or as little, as the 
world around them knew. But they were superior to their age 
in believing that the powers at which heathenism trembled had 
been brought into subjection by the virtue of the Cross, and in 

8 The raising of the dead mentioned by Irenseus, is expressly distin- 
guished by him from the miracles of our Lord. Euseb. v. io. 

9 " Not even in the earliest ages of the Scripture history are miracles 
wrought at random . . . nor are they strown confusedly over the face of the 
history, being with few exceptions reducible to three eras : the formation of 
the Hebrew Church and polity, the reformation in the times of the idolatrous 
kings of Israel, and the promulgation of the Gospel. Let it be observed, 
moreover, that the power of working them, instead of being assumed by any 
classes of men indiscriminately, is described as a prerogative of the occasional 
prophets, to the exclusion of the kings and priests." Newman's Apollonius 
of Tyana. 

10 See explanation of the cures wrought at the tomb of the Abbe Paris, 
and other like cases, in Douglas's Criterion. 






Church Growth and Life. 3 1 7 

the holy Name of Jesus might be effectually vanquished. Hence 
the direction that faith instinctively assumed. The Exorcist 
kept his place in the Church," when prophecy, miracles, and 
tongues had ceased. Without pretending to be wiser than the 
science of the day with regard to the mysterious border-land 12 
of the natural and supernatural, Religion felt itself to be more 
powerful than science. Heathenism was confronted in its 
strongholds of magical pretensions. The demons that philoso- 
phers invoked, and before which philosophers trembled, 13 be- 
lievers set at naught and put under a ban. And the result was 
on the whole favorable to their cause. Whether the wonders 
wrought by the Christian thaumaturge were many or few ; 
whether strictly superhuman, or merely the effect of an enthu- 
siastic faith working through certain latent energies 

° o . Faith 

of nature : they were at all events wrought in good superior to 

Science. 

conscience ; they were confidently appealed to ; 14 they 

had the effect of making Christians superior to the fear of the 

11 But when the Council of Laodicea decreed (Can. 26) that no one 
should exorcise, either in public or in private, unless ordained by a Bishop, 
the belief in exorcism as "a gift" was manifestly on the wai^e. This Coun- 
cil is variously dated from 314 to 372. 

12 Middleton, in his Free Enquiry, seems to leave no place for this mid- 
dle ground — this terra incognita of dreams, visions, presentiments, and the 
like — but attributes all wonders of every kind to mere jugglery : a very lame 
philosophy to any one who believes that there is such a thing as a soul. See 
Dodw. Diss. Cypr. iv. 

z 3 Gibbon, with his usual art, represents the philosophers as resorting to 
magic, by way of rivalry to Christian exorcism. The reverse is certain. 
Simon Magus, Elymas, and Apollonius are types of a class that flourished long 
before and long after the Gospel was preached. 

x 4 Tertullian's challenge [Apolog. 23) can leave no doubt of his belief in 
the reality both of demoniacal possession, and of the power of exorcism : 
" Let some one be brought forward here at the foot of your judgment-seat, 
who, it is agreed, is possessed of a demon. When commanded by any Chris- 
tian to speak, that spirit shall as truly declare itself a demon as elsewhere 
falsely a god." For references to similar statements of Irenoeus, Justin M., 
Tatian, Origen, Minut. Felix, Cyprian, Arnobius, Lactantius, and Eusebius, 
see note to Oxf. translat. of Tertullian, vol. i. p. 57. 



31 8 History of the Church. 

black arts resorted to by magicians ; and it was felt among the 
heathen that against a peculiar and mysterious class of evils, to 
which the whole world was held in hopeless subjection, the 
Name of Christ was more powerful than any other name. 

There was a deeper and broader effect from wonders of a 

more spiritual and less exceptionable kind. The conversion 

of men " from enemies into friends " was the glory of 

Enemies ° J 

made the Gospel. These conversions, sometimes instan- 

Friends. 

taneous, especially at scenes of martyrdom, but more 
frequently the result of gradual conviction, were numerous 
enough to keep up a steady increase of the Church, even in 
times of disaster and persecution. On the other hand, while 
Weak many fell away from timidity or weakness, few of 

w " these relapsed into heathenism. They merely bent 
before a storm they were not able to resist. As soon as the 
storm passed, these men of little faith returned ; and there was 
no ignominy they would not submit to, no hardship they would 
not endure, to win their way back to a place among the stand- 
ing brethren. 

It was probably the large proportion of timid disciples of 
this sort that gave so rigid a form to the discipline of the early 
iv. Church. 15 Before the third century there was already 
iscipline. a ca f ec ] lumena i probation of three years preparatory to 
baptism : a custom for which we look in vain for any Apostolic 
precedent. For those who lapsed or fell into open sin, there 
was an exclusion from communion of three or four years ; dur- 
ing which term the person doing penance was not allowed to 
enter the body of the Church. In all this there was a tendency 

x s Tertullian (De Prescript. 41, 42) makes discipline a note of the true 
Church. To let heathen come into their assemblies was to give that which is 
holy to the dogs, to cast pearls before swine. Heretics he represents as per- 
fecting (baptizing) catechumens before they were taught; as allowing women 
to teach, and even to baptize ; as admitting novices (persons recently con- 
verted) to the Ministry, and allowing them to continue in secular pursuits, etc. 
It is easy to see, however just his censures may be in the main, that in some 
points they would condemn the practice of Apostolic times. 1 Cor. xiv. 
23-25 ; Acts. xvi. 27-33. 



Church Growth and Life. 3 1 9 

towards legalism, or towards an over-sharp distinction between 
the "perfect" and the imperfect. 16 It may have been, also, 
that the probation before baptism fostered a disposition to defer 
as long as possible the open and full confession of the Name of 
Christ. A strict discipline, however, seemed necessary for the' 
times. And as the Bishops retained in their own hands a 
power of indulgence or mitigation, the evils resulting 
from it were probably less for awhile than the power it porary 

System. 

gave the Church over a loose crowd of well-meaning, 

though feeble and timid members. Whatever its merits may have 

been, it continued in its strictness hardly more than a century. 

The numerical strength of the early Church has been so ex- 
aggerated by hatred on the one side, and by a too sanguine faith 
on the other, that it seems impossible to arrive at a y 

satisfactory conclusion. The ancient mind was not TRENG ™ 
arithmetical ; and when it passed beyond thousands NuMBEKS - 
into the region of myriads, it was more apt to fly on the wings 
of fancy than to keep to the foot-pace of prosaic calculation. 
From such statistics as remain, it is probable that in the middle 
of the third century Christians could in few of the large cities 
have counted more than one twentieth of the population as on 
their side. 17 But this twentieth part was not a mere crowd, it 

16 This distinction the Manichseans carried out in its utmost rigor : the 
" hearers" and the "perfect" were with them almost different castes. On the 
subject of Discipline, see Kaye's Tertullian, ch. iv. ; also Bingham's Antiq- 
tiities, Marshall's Penitential Discipline, Morinus, De Disciplina, etc., Bates's 
Coll. Lectures on Chr. Antiquities, etc. For other writers on this subject, see 
Fabricii, Lux Evangel, ix. 7. 

*7 Gibbon (ch. xv.) makes on the whole a fair calculation. For copious 
reference to passages suggesting a higher estimate, see note to Oxford trans- 
lation of Tertullian, vol. i. p. 3. From Tertull. Apolog. 37, it seems possible 
that among that select population who had the right of citizenship, Christians 
were a majority. If so, the large expressions both of Christian and heathen 
writers are easily accounted for : the rabble and the slave population counting 
for naught in their estimate of numbers. See Milman, Book II. ch. ix. note. 
The large and (one may say) absurd calculations formed from the supposed 
number of bodies in the Catacombs have been noticed in chap. iv. of this 
Book. The reason of heathen exaggeration may be seen in Deut. ii. 25. 



320 History of the Ctcurch. 

was a disciplined host. It was to be found, moreover, and with 
the same characteristics, in all parts of the Roman world. This 
fact considered, there is enough to account for the ingens multi- 
tude) of Tacitus, for the parteni pcene majorem of Tertullian, and 
similar vague expressions of other writers, without taking such 
phrases to the letter, or torturing figures of speech into figures 
of arithmetic. It is certain that the Christians were far less 
numerous than the heathen. It may be on the whole, therefore, 
more true to say that the power of the Church led to an uncon- 
scious exaggeration of its numbers, than that its numbers in 
reality increased its power. 

A vastly greater influence is to be ascribed to the Catholicity 

of the Church, the Unity of the Episcopate, and the 

Catholic way in which, under a popular but stable form of gov- 

Unity. l r 

ernment, general and local interests had become welded 
into one. 

The Apostolic episcopate or oversight of the Churches was 
in its essence collegiate : a fact sufficiently manifest in the joint 

calling, training, and commissioning of the Twelve, 
Episcopate in their joint residence for so long a time in Jerusa- 

a College. , ° 

lem, in their subsequent meetings and conferences, 
and in the way in which each, after their dispersion, became 
the nucleus of a new band or college of Apostolic fellow- 
laborers. But the collegiate principle applied to the general 
interests of the Church. 18 In matters of local interest each 
Apostle seems to have acted with the utmost freedom and 
independence. 

At a somewhat later period, when the number of chief pas- 
tors was greatly multiplied, and the limits of jurisdiction pro- 
Locai portionally narrowed, there was (humanly speaking) a 

Episcopate, danger of an undue development of the principle of 
local, diocesan, or independent episcopacy. There is something 

18 This was shown in the question of circumcision. S. Paul might have 
settled it by his independent inspiration ; but it was thought better that a mat 
ter of common interest should be settled by common consent. Hence the 
Council in Acts, xv. 



Church Growth and Life. 3 2 1 

that looks like this in the writings of S. Ignatius. 19 A Bishop 
in his own city-see, supported by his own crown of Presbyters, 
regarding himself as speaking and ruling in Christ's stead, and 
responsible for his conduct to Christ alone, might easily degen- 
erate into a puny lord spiritual, isolated within his own narrow 
circle, and as absolute in pretensions as weak in real power. 
But as heresies increased, the oneness of the Bishopric showed 
itself to be the Divinely appointed safeguard against this peril. 
A common cause enforced common counsels. Through 

Synods. 

Synods holden regularly once or twice a year in pres- 
ence of the whole body of the brethren, and through canons 
requiring at least two Bishops to concur in consecrations, 20 the 
episcopate became established in its proper Apostolic form of 
a collegium : a commonwealth, that is, of colleagues or broth- 
ers, all supporting a common burden, and each responsible to 
all for the portion he upheld. 21 

From this accrued many obvious advantages. Though 
Ecumenical Councils were as yet impracticable, the Provincial 
Synods maintained a strict concert with one another j 22 intercom- 
and the Church Catholic was knit together by a living munion - 
web of intercommunion, pervading the remotest quarters of the 
great Roman world. 

It was not the least of the advantages of all this, that it nipped 

1 9 Looks like it, only; for it is obviously unfair to construct an Ignatian 
theory out of a few obiter dicta in one or two Epistles. If, however, a theory 
be thus constructed and opposed to the Cyprianic theory, the contrast is de- 
cidedly in favor of the latter. The Bishop of S. Ignatius (that is, according 
to certain critics) has very much the air of a spiritual autocrat. But the 
Bishop of S. Cyprian is an officer sternly and closely limited from above, from 
below, and in fact from all around. Dodw. Dissert, vii. 

20 Apostol. Canon, i. 

21 Episcopatus unus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur. S. Cypr. 
De Unit. Eccl. 

22 In these Synods the representative idea was prominently brought out : 
Concilia ex universis Ecclesiis, per quae et altiora quaeque in commune trac- 
tantur et ipsa representatio totius nominis Christiani magna veneratione cele- 
bratur. Tertull. De yejun. 13. 

14* 



322 History of the Church. 

in the bud any tendency that might exist towards absolutism, on 
Bishops the part of Presbyters or of Bishops. 23 However a 
account pastor might feel disposed to lord it in the circle of 
We - his own labors, there was a vast body of his peers, by 

whom on complaint from any quarter he could be called to an 
account. One of the highest positions in all Christendom, 
conjoined with powerful court credit, could not save Paul of 
Samosata from trial and deposition ; and it was only a timely 
explanation that saved Dionysius of Alexandria. The whole- 

2 3 Thus the attempt of Victor and Stephen in Rome was checked effect- 
ually by Irenaeus and Cyprian. In summing up his statement of the pri- 
macy in Rome, Dollinger candidly remarks : " But we must confess that 
the power of the Roman pontiff, and his relations to the universal Church, 
were not yet fully developed. ... It was in the natural order of events that 
the formation of particular Churches should precede, and that the connection 
of the Bishop with his Clergy and flock should be firmly established : then 
came the time for the institution of the metropolitan authority," etc. On 
which I remark : (i) The supreme power in any society is always the first to 
be developed. Time merely limits that power by developing lower functions, 
with a system of checks and balances. Thus Moses and Aaron were more 
distinctly and absolutely the supreme power in Israel than any of their suc- 
cessors. (2) The "natural order of events" in the early Church was first 
Christ the Head, then Apostles representing Christ, then great metropolitan 
foundations (Jerusalem, Csesarea, Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, etc.), then 
Churches everywhere. In other words, it was from the Head down through 
the members, not up through the members to the Head. The highest powers 
of the Church were the first manifested. If, then, a papal supremacy was the 
highest power of all, we ought to find it most clearly exhibited from the first. 
(3) The arguments for Episcopacy and Papacy are essentially different from 
one another. Episcopacy we see clearly in Cyprian, Ignatius, James of Jeru- 
salem, the Apostles ; and nowhere more clearly than in these last. Papacy we 
see clearly in Gregory VII., less clearly in Gregory I., less clearly still in 
Silvester, least clearly of all in the first three centuries. As it approaches its 
supposed fountain-head, it becomes so dwindled down that even Dollinger, in 
defending it, has to call it a primacy — not a supremacy. But a primacy differs 
from a supremacy, as the power of a constitutional president differs from that 
of an autocrat or absolute monarch. See Mosheim's Commentaries, cent. ii. 
\\ 20-24 (Murdock's translation). On Development, see W. Archer Butler's 
Letters ; also Brownson's Quarterly (1847-8). 



Church Growth and Life. 323 

some working of this system is witnessed by the fact that while 
on all other subjects men differed and formed sects; while the 
Creed and the Scriptures were exposed to the violence of con- 
troversy ; yet, in the matter of government there was Episcopacy 
a wonderful agreement : even the heretics and schis- univ 
matics, the Montanists, Manichseans, Novatians, Donatists, and 
Meletians, had all hierarchies similar in form at least to that of 
the Catholic Church. 

While the general government of the Church was thus pow- 
erfully controlled and self-limited, local interests were managed 
in an equally admirable way. That polity, on the Loca i 

whole, has most vital force, which within limits of Polity. 
mutual respect allows the freest exercise to individual gifts, and 
employs those gifts most largely for the benefit of all. In the 
early Church, the solid and balanced strength of an Apostolic 
Episcopate was the support and guaranty of such whole- Exercise 
some liberty. Hence, in Pentecostal times, the liveli- °f Gi f ts - 
ness with which the charisms were exercised in the assemblies of 
the faithful. 24 No ill-compacted system could have endured such 
a strain upon it, without falling into disorder. So, in later times, 
the number and activity of the orders of the sub-ministry ; 23 the 
popular influence of the Virgins and Confessors ; the varied 
frequent meetings of the whole body of the People ; Factions. 
the exciting elections of Bishops and Presbyters; the trials of 
the lapsed or other offenders, in the presence of a deeply inter- 
ested crowd, half-witnesses, half-judges; the eager interest, in 
short, that each member of the community took in the admin- 
istration of the discipline, the charities, and the finances of the 

2 4 1 Cor. xiv. 26. 

2 5 In the Roman Church (a.d. 250) there were subdeacons, acofyths, 
exorcists, readers, janitors (Euseb. vi. 43); to which may be added copiatce 
(who attended to the burial of the dead), catechists, and others; though some 
of these were " functions " (like the charisms of Pentecostal times) rather than 
" orders " proper. In the Apostolic canons, subdeacons, readers, and singers 
are put in the same category with laymen, so far as discipline is concerned 
(Canon 43). On this subject, see Bingham's Antiquities, Book III. ; see also 
Constitut. Apostol. ii. 57 ; viii. 19-26, 28. 



324 History of the Church. 

Church : all this would have led to inextricable confusion and 
_ to schisms without end, had not a balance-wheel been 

j he 

Balance- provided in the constitution of an Episcopate, which, 

wheel. * . 

being Catholic as well as local, could concentrate the 
strength of the whole Body upon any particular point. Thus in 
the Novatian troubles at Rome, in the sedition of the five Pres- 
byters at Carthage, and in the resistance made by 

Instances. J 

Paul's party at Antioch after the condemnation of that 
heretic : Cornelius, Cyprian, and Domnus were sustained by the 
authority of their colleagues all the world over. On the other 
hand, when the People were the aggrieved party — as in the case 
of the Churches of Leon and Astorga in Spain — the ready inter- 
vention of the Episcopate at large neutralized the aggressions 
of any particular prelate, even of the energetic Roman Stephen. 
A polity so flexible and so strong, so popular in its action 
and yet so conservative in its basis, was doubtless an element 

both of growth and of solid influence to the Church. 
Christian Another influence, closely akin to this, is the power of 

Christian life ; a subject already anticipated in part, 
but meriting in some particulars a more exact consideration. 

In the servant stage of her pilgrimage, in times of persecu- 
tion, when led as it were into the wilderness and kept apart, the 

Church had to be in a peculiar sense " the household 

Domestic 

T/es of faith" : not the complement merely of social and 

loosened. t t . 

domestic ties, but in a very large measure the practical 
substitute for them. The first effect of the Gospel was to break 
The Chris- U P family relations. Husband was set against wife, and 
o l / n Ho d me l w ^ e against husband ; and a man's worst enemies often 
n abie f to V ° r ~ were those of his own house. Tertullian, indeed, paints 
whiutht a gl ow i n g picture of that home in which man and wife 
World were one j n t } ie same f a ith : and thereby shows inci- 

rcmained ' J 

Heathen, dentally how much Christianity was doing to elevate 
and refine the conjugal relation. 26 But the very glow of the pic- 
ture creates a suspicion that fancy furnished some of the brightest 
colors. It is remarkable, also, that children have no place in 

26 Tertull. Ad Exor. lib. ii. 



Church Growth and Life. 325 

the matrimonial paradise thus depicted. It is still more remark- 
able that the effect of the picture, on the whole, is to discourage 
wedlock rather than promote it. The simple truth was, that, 
living in a world each breath of which was pestilential to all but 
the strongest natures, 27 a believer shrank from matrimony in pro- 
portion as the ideal he had formed of that blessed state was drawn 
from the pure precepts of the Gospel ; or, if marriage from any 
cause seemed to be unavoidable, he dreaded at all events the 
responsibility of an increasing family. In a society still heathen, 
with just light enough to show the foulness of its enormities, 
children could seldom be regarded as arrows in the strong man's 
quiver: they were too easily perverted into weapons for his 
spiritual foe. 28 To be childless, therefore, or, if the burden 
of offspring were imposed, to see them depart early to children 
a safer and better world, was considered by many a notdesired - 
legitimate desire. There are, nevertheless, many blossoms of 
early piety in the annals of those times. Attention was paid, 
also, to Christian education. 29 On the whole, however, a genial 
domestic tone was not conspicuous among the graces of the 
period. The pruning of the vine had fallen to the " wild boar 

2 ? To appreciate that "present distress," which led to an undue develop- 
ment of the encratite spirit, one must have a notion of the indescribable turpi- 
tude of heathen morals ; but to give an idea of this, even under the veil of 
Latin, would render a book unfit to meet. the eye of the ordinary reader. The 
state of modern heathenism, in this respect, is suggested as plainly as Chris- 
tian decency permits, in the very trustworthy book of Mr. R. B. Minturn, Jr., 
From New York to Delhi. 

28 " Shall we seek burdens, which even the Gentiles for the most part 
avoid? .... burdens not only troublesome to us, but perilous to faith — " 
Tertull. Ad Exor. i. 5. The frightful amount of pauperism, with exposure of 
infants, prostitution, and other crimes, led many of the fathers to believe that 
the world was overstocked. See Chastel's Essay on the Charity of Primitive 
Christians ; S. Cypr. Epistol. ad Demetrianum. 

2 9 Infant-baptism was favored by the Church,' and even infant-communion. 
But prudential considerations led many devout persons, such as the mother of 
S. Augustine, to reserve the blessing for later and safer years. Tertullian was 
a decided advocate of such delay. 



n 



26 History of the Church. 



out of the wood," and the more tender shoots of the plant were 
naturally the first to suffer. 

Under these circumstances, the life of the early Christians 
— their polity as S. Paul appropriately terms it — was public and 
The church Churchly to an extent inconceivable in our days. To 
a Council. sa ^ ^^ believers were assiduous in communion or 
common prayer, gives but a faint notion of the real state of 
things. The ecclesia was, to them, not a mere place of worship : 
it was a synod, a council, an ecclesiastical exchange ; 3 ° in short, an 
assembling of themselves together for devotional, social, char- 
itable and business purposes. 

In the morning they met, to the great disgust of the heathen, 
for the " daily bread "; and as they went forth from these ante- 
Rites and lucan meetings, they were known to be Christians by 

' hi *' the smell upon their breath of the merum matutinum^ 
The sacrament was still a communion in the strict sense of the 
word. In the celebration of it there were but few departures as 
yet from Apostolic simplicity. Tertullian notices, 32 as customs 
resting on tradition, that it was received before daybreak, from 
the hands of the Bishop only, and with great care not to spill 
the wine or to drop any particle of the bread. Moreover, on 
one day every year, oblations were made for the dead in com- 
memoration of their bii'thday : that is, of their entrance into 
everlasting life. 33 The consecrated elements were carried to 

3° Churches, therefore, were sometimes called Synodi, Concilia, Conci- 
liabzila, Conventicula. Bingham's Antiquities, viii. i. 7. For the order observed 
in Church, see Apostol. Conslitut. ii. 57. 

3 1 The daily Eucharist seems to have been the custom of Rome, Carthage, 
and some other places : see Bingham, xv. ix. 4 ; also S. Cyprian, De Ccend 
Dom. The weekly Eucharist was probably the general rule. 

3 2 Tertull. De Coron. iii. ; see notes to the Oxford translation. 

33 The names of the departed were inscribed upon writing-tables called 
diptychs, and after being commemorated, were erased to make room for others. 
The offerings made by the friends of the departed contributed to support the 
charities of the Church. The prayers offered/;^ donnitione were founded on 
the principle announced by S. Cyprian : " Let us always be mindful of one 
another .... and pray for one another wherever we may be ... . and 



Church Growth and Life. 327 

the sick by deacons. Communicants sometimes took with them 
a portion of the bread, and tasted it before each meal. The 
Eucharist was usually celebrated in Church : it was not as yet 
forbidden, however, to celebrate it in prison, or in 
other unconsecrated places. It is probable enough, that 
by the end of the third century it was accompanied with an 
increase of ceremonial. The sacrament of Baptism had already 
admitted many additional observances. Previous fasting, exor- 
cism, renunciation, unction, trine immersion, recital of the 
Creed, use of sponsors, and after the day of Baptism a week's 
abstinence from daily washing, are among the peculiarities 
mentioned by early writers. The worship of the Lord's Day 
was signalized by standing in prayer, fasting and kneeling being 
prohibited. To this it may be added, that signing with the cross 
was practised on all occasions. 34 

At night Christians came together in a more sociable way 
for the Agape, or Love-feast : a sober but cheerful repast, which 
the rich provided, and which to many of the poorer 

The Agape. 

brethren must have been the principal meal of the 
day. 35 These feasts already in the third century were becoming 
more luxurious, and less religious than was consistent with good 
order, or even with good morals. 36 It would seem., however, 
that such misuse was only occasional, and was connected 
with mortuary repasts, rather than with the love-feasts 
proper. Indeed, many kinds of night meetings were customary 
among Christians : which gave occasion of scandal to the 

whichever of us shall be permitted to be soonest with the Lord, let his love for 
all endure, and let him entreat the Lord's mercy without ceasing for his 
brothers and sisters." Ep. IviL ad Cornelium. 

34 Tertull. De Cor. iii. 

35 "Our feast showeth its nature in its very name. It is named by the 
word which in Greek stands for love. ... If we aid every poor man by this 
refreshment, it is not to enslave their liberty, not to fill their bellies at the 
expense of their self-respect, but to be like God, taking special thought for 
men of low degree." Tertull. Apolog. 39. 

3 6 The earliest canonical notice of abuses in the love-feasts seems to have 
been in the Council of Laodicea : Can. 27, 28. 



328 History of the Church. 

heathen, and could hardly fail to be attended more or less with 
disorders and abuses. 37 

There was enough in the vicissitudes and perils of the times 
to give a peculiar zest to these frequent meetings. Through 
Mutual that wonderful network of fraternal sympathy, the 
Sympathy. Communion f Saints, no part of the Body could suffer 
without all feeling with it. 38 A brother, for example, after a 
long journey from Antioch or Jerusalem, having saluted all the 
sister Churches by the way, arrives in Rome, bearing credentials 
from his Bishop. Perhaps he has with him a handkerchief or a 
garment, stained with the sacred blood of some recent martyr- 
dom. He is hospitably received. The first brother he meets is 
glad to entertain him. His feet being washed and 

Hospitality. . ° 

his wants attended to by the sister and co?iserva, the 
devout wife of his host, in the evening he is presented at the 
Agape; and the brethren all salute him with "the kiss of 
peace." It is needless to go into the particulars of such scenes. 
To any one who has studied the heart of the old classic world, 
so childlike and so strong amid its manifold corruptions, it is 
easy to see that the non-resistance to evil inculcated in the Eccle- 
sia, and so miraculously maintained for three hundred years, was 
no stagnation in the flow of earnest life, but rather the token of 
a mysterious and divine controlling power. 

But a heathen, to whom not a syllable was breathed of the 
nature of this politeia, except as he could extort a half-confession 
Heathen from a reluctant wife or a stammering slave, and who 
Calumnies. knew not hi n g of the controlling influence of the Ser- 
mon on the Mount, would naturally regard it all as a sort of 

37 Hence, Can. 35 of Elvira: " Women are forbidden to keep vigils in 
cemeteries, lest under the pretext of devotion crimes be perpetrated." The 
passion for stimulating services in cemeteries and over the martyria seems to 
have led off believers to the meetings of heretics. Concil. Laodic. Can. 9. 

3 8 " Communicatio pacis, appellatio fraternitatis, contesseratio hospitali- 
tatis." Tertull. De Prescript, 20. Even the scoffing Lucian was struck with 
this featine of Christianity. " It is incredible to see the ardor with which that 
people help one another in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legis- 
lator has put into their heads that they are all brethren." 



Church Growth and Life. 3 2y 

permanent conspiracy. It was to be expected that such an one 
should curl his lip with scorn, as he spoke of Christian love ; 39 
that the opprobrious word stupra should be associated in his 
mind with the antelucan Feast ; that his abhorrence should find 
vent in caricatures, some of which, in all their fearful blackness 
of mingled calumny and profanity, are still occasionally exhumed 
amid the living death of Pompeii ; 40 that he should regard the 
Church, in short, as a slumbering volcano, the outbreak of which 
might at any moment involve the whole social fabric in ruins. 

And this, indeed, was the wonder of early Christian life : a 
stumbling-stone to many, yet to others a means of irresistible 
conviction. The life of the Ecclesia, so mysterious, Daily u/e 
so hated, so suspected, was accompanied in the case of Blamdess - 
individual believers with a daily walk, quiet, peaceable, and self- 
restrained, in which calumny itself found it difficult to detect 
a serious flaw. A heathen husband might, indeed, be vexed at 
the plain attire of his Christian wife; he might look upon it as 
an unseasonable display of gravity, when she shuddered at the 
profanities of his worldly guests, or declined being amused at 
their unseemly jokes : her rising from his side at night to utter a 
prayer ; her visits, if allowed, to the night meetings for devotion 
or to the hovels of the poor for charity ; her taking p ec nn~ 
of a bit of bread reserved from the matutinal Feast aritles - 
before each meal ; her gesture of abhorrence in presence of idoi- 
worship ; her frequent use of the sign of the Cross ; these and 
other peculiarities might annoy him not a little, and in some of 
them his superstitious fears might lead him to suspect a taint 
of magic : 41 yet, on the whole, when he found that wife to be 
patient, quiet, helpful — the greatest contrast imaginable to the 

39 The famous phrase, " See how these Christians love one another," was 
sometimes not a compliment, but an indecent taunt. See Minut. Fel. Octa- 
vius. 

4° The Graffiti, or wall-scribblings, of Pompeii have shed a light upon 
some peculiarities of the early Church. See an article in the Edinburgh 
Reviezv (1859). 

4* Tertullian, Ad Uxor. — in which every word is a window, revealing the 
secrets of home-life. 



3$o History of the Church. 

frivolous spouses of his neighbors — there would be a strong in- 
ducement to look more closely into the reality of her religion. 

But, on the other hand, the Apologists had to complain that 
there were husbands, fathers, and masters, to whom wanton wives, 
_, . profligate sons, and eye-serving slaves were less offensive, 

J heir . 

Virtues not on the whole, than Christian inmates in their houses. 

Popular. 

From causes already mentioned, the virtues most appa- 
rent among believers were those of the extraordinary and heroic 
type. There was little room for the qualities most prized in 
heathen society. Patriotism could not flourish under the frost 

of continual persecution. Public spirit could be hardly 
Public more than a name, when to serve the public in any 

Spirit. . ... . 

capacity was to be implicated in the sin of idol-wor- 
ship. Military merit was much hindered from a similar cause, 
though the army seems to have been regarded with some favor. 42 
So with all the amenities of social and friendly conviviality; 
with the observance of holidays, feasts, amusements, and public 
or private entertainments. The peculiar charm which classic 
culture had thrown over all the fashions of the world, was but 
the graceful covering of a mass of moral putrefaction. Each 
flower concealed a serpent. Each grace was so entwined with 
the tendrils of a wanton polytheism that, to escape defilement, 
Christians were fain to eschew " the king's meat " and to thrive 
on the "pulse and water" of a bare sufficiency. Hence, even 
Aversion the arts were looked upon with suspicion. The 
ie Arts. p a j nter or scu lptor who became a convert to the 
Gospel, did so at the sacrifice of his professional livelihood. By 
degrees, however, there was a relaxation in this respect. The 
poetry of life, so closely pruned for a season, began to bud forth 
again ; and, amid the touching memorials of the saints who 
slept, the elements of an elevated, pure, and intensely Christian 
art, began to settle upon the Church as quietly and spontane- 

42 Military service was objected to by Tertullian, Origen, and others, but 
chiefly on account of the danger to faith and pure morals. That Christians 
were quite numerous in the army there can be no question. Tertull. Apolog. 
5, 37, 42. See note to Oxford trans, of Tertull. p. 184. 



Church Growth and Life. 331 

ously as dew upon the grass. The great-hearted Fossor^ could 
not leave his labor of love, without inscribing upon it christian 
some tender symbol, some edifying parable. The s y mbols - 
Cross, the Dove, the Lamb, the Good Shepherd, and, most 
popular of all, the Ichthus 44 or Fish, the Ark, the Gourd of 
Jonah, the heaven-sailing Ship, the four-headed River of Para- 
dise, the Rock smitten by Moses, or even a few heathen images 
suggested by the Sibylline Books, such as Orpheus with his lyre 
charming the beasts, marked the resting-places of those who 
having fallen asleep in peace awaited the promised dawn of a 
joyful Ressurrection. 45 But such things were luxuries for the 
Catacombs. In controversy with the heathen and in 

. . Serious 

the walks of every-day life, Christians were rigidly views 

unaesthetic and utilitarian. 46 Fashionable festivity was 
to them but a ghastly grin upon the face of death. It is not to 
be wondered at, therefore, that in the eyes of that numerous class, 
common to all ages, who value present comfort more than hon- 
esty and truth, believers were looked upon as a sunless race, 
lucifuga natio, hateful to the lares and penates of a lively Roman 
home. 

While nothing was further from the mind of the early Chris- 

43 The fossores or delvers were characters of no little importance in the 
Roman Church : see Perret, Aringhi, and others, on the Catacombs. On the 
general subject, see Didron's Christian Iconography. 

44 Anagram for IH20T2 XPI2T02 0EOT TI02 2S2THP— Jesus Christ 
Son of God Saviour. 

45 The Council of Elvira in Spain (A.D. 305) forbade pictures in Churches, 
" lest the object of worship should be depicted." It is probable from this that 
pictures (as distinguished from mere symbols) had begun to be used in 
Churches; though it was along time before they came into open and undis- 
puted use, even as ornaments. Eusebius speaks of portraits of Christ and the 
Apostles, but as a matter of heathen custom only : Eccl. II. vii. 19. 

46 a Flowers were made to smell, not to crown dead bodies with," a 
Christian is made to say, in the Octavius. Tertullian speaks in like manner : 
De Coron. v. Even Clement of Alexandria, who lived in a Church com- 
munity already wealthy and luxurious, shows no indulgence to the ornaments 
and superfluities of life : see Pcedagog passim. In the burial of the dead, 
however, cost was not spared. 



2> $2 History of the Church. 

tians than communistic notions/ 7 yet nothing was more fre- 
quently reported of them, whether for censure or for 
praise, than that " they had all things common." 
The love-feasts, already mentioned, were associated with a well- 
known maxim of our Lord, 48 and gave the rich an opportunity 
to cheer the hard lot of the poor, without injury to 

to the Poor, , l ' J J 

the sentiment of honest self-respect. "As the elm 
supports the vine, and is beautified by it," so the rich were to 
support the poor in such a way as to cherish in them genial and 
amiable affections. Other objects of charity were the confessors 
in prison ; the destitute families of the martyrs ; the care of 
to widows, widows and orphans, who were placed under the par- 
's** us, ticular charge of the Bishops; the rearing of children 
exposed by their parents ; the rescuing of a few at least from 
that vast flood of uncared-for souls which set in towards the 
brothels, the bridewells, the galleys, or the schools of the glad- 
iators. Life among the ancients was held very cheap : souls 
still cheaper. Cato, a model of domestic virtues, boasted that 
he kept no worn-out slaves. When the Gospel came, it partly 
found, and in part created, a more humane feeling 49 Still, the 
abominable treatment of the familia by heathen masters, during 
this period, may be inferred from the fact that, horrible as were 
the tortures inflicted upon the Martyrs, they were after all but 
the ordinary punishments of refractory slaves. The eculeus or 

47 See the admirable essay of the Rev. Stephen Chastel on the Charity 
of the Primitive Churches: translated by G. A. Matile; also, C. Schmidt, 
Essai Historique sur la Societe, etc., Paris, 1853; F. de Champagny, La 
Charite Chretienne, etc., Paris, 1854; A. Tollemer, CEuvres de Misericorde, 
etc., Paris, 1853. 

* 8 S. Luke, xiv. 12; compare Constitut. Apostol. ii. 28. 

o I do not think it necessary (with Chastel and others) to ascribe the 
humane sentiments of Seneca, Trajan, Pliny, Antonius Pius, and other ami- 
able heathens, to any supposed knowledge of the Gospel. That old Roman 
world was human, not diabolic. As such, it had its share of good Samaritans, 
worthy publicans, and benevolent centurions, a thousandfold more deserving 
of praise than such whited sepulchres as Cato. If there had been no humane 
feeling, the humanity of the Gospel would not have been appreciated. 



Church Growth and Life. 333 

rack was an almost necessary implement in a heathen home. 
Now the Church, by inculcating a true religious 

. . Slaves. 

equality of men in all conditions, and by putting her 
anathema upon such cruelties, for example, as the selling of 
slaves to gladiatorial schools, did much towards remedying the 
worst and most inveterate evils of the system. Indiscriminate 
manumission she could not encourage : indeed, she Manu- 
was obliged to forbid it, except where there was a rea- 
sonable prospect to the freedman of an honest livelihood, or 
where the manumitter engaged to be his patron or protector. 50 
For it was not the least among the cruelties of the times, that 
masters often freed their servants to escape the burden of their 
support ; thus adding to that rabble of famished wolves by 
which the great cities were infested. The redemption other 

of captives was another channel of benevolence. So / ll B^nevo- 
with the struggle against the famines and pestilences lence ' 

by which the ancient world was so frequently desolated. So, 
again, with the burial of the dead ; which being sadly neglected 
by the heathen, the Church had to bear more than a double 
burden. 

To meet these and similar claims required, on the part of the 
Church, an almost boundless liberality : more especially as the 
burden was laid exclusively upon the faithful. But sources 
the supply never failed to come. In the language of °f Income - 
Clement of Alexandria, Charity was not a cistern, but a well : 
the more it was drawn from, the clearer, the sweeter, and the 
more abundant its flow. And that it might flow freely, all fac- 
titious supplies were rigorously rejected. To give, was to com- 
municate with the altar : to be at variance with the altar, was to 
lose the privilege of giving. When Marcion the heretic 
was excommunicated, his liberal donations, amounting 
to the sum of two hundred thousand Sestertii, were cast out with 
him. 51 In the same way, the offerings pro defunctis, namely, the 

5° Among the Canons bearing on the subject are Ap. Can. 82, and Gan- 
gran. 3. See also Apostol. Constitutions, iv. 9. For much interesting matter 
on this point, see Chastel's Charity, etc. 5* Tertull. Adv. Marc. iv. 4. 



334 History of the Church, 

lavish oblations prompted by affectionate remembrance of those 
who slept in the Lord, were not accepted, nor was the name of 
the deceased pronounced in the prayer pro dormitione, which 
formed part of the Eucharistic Service, unless he had departed 
in the peace of the Church. 52 The acceptance of the gift was 
involved in the acceptableness of the giver. Hence, not free- 
will offerings merely, but the free-will offerings of an holy wor- 
ship, were the ordinary sources of revenue. These, given 
Three weekly or monthly, according to the ability of the 

giver, 53 were divided into three portions, — one for the 
clergy, one for Church services, one for charities of all other 
kinds ; and were dealt out daily, under the direction of the 
Bishop and Deacons, to these several objects. It was one grave 
charge against the Montanist prophets, that they accepted sala- 
aries, 54 instead of trusting each day to furnish its own supplies. 
They preferred cistern-water to that which came fresh from the 
spring. But among the Catholics, in addition to the amount 
that flowed in regularly from the sources above mentioned, there 
were occasional contributions for particular purposes ; and not 
unfrequently it happened that the old Pentecostal ardor broke 

forth anew, and wealthy converts, on entering the 

Free Gifts. 7 J ' ° # 

Church, or more especially on election into the minis- 
try, put their all into the sacred treasury, 55 and were content 

s 2 S. Cyprian. Ep. i.; Tertull. De Monogam. io. 

53 In exhorting to liberality, the Church naturally referred to Pentecostal 
times, to Jewish tithes, first-fruits, etc., for the measure in which individuals 
should give. There was no sort of compulsion, however; and the clergy 
were not allowed to exact pay for any special religious services. 

54 This seems to be the drift of the sharp invectives of Apollonius, Euseb. 
Eccl. Hist. v. 1 8. The followers of Theodotus the Byzantine adopted the 
same custom. Such a business-like arrangement offended the religious instinct 
at first, because it looked too much like taking thought for the morrow. Like 
many other heretical inventions, however, it crept into the Church, and stayed 
there See Munter, Primord. Eccles. African, xxii. 7. 

35 Eusebius speaks of this as common in the first and second age : iii. 37. 
In after-times, Cyprian and Gregory Thaumaturgus are well-known examples 
of the same liberality. 



Church Growth and Life. 335 

thenceforward to live of the altar. Thus there was always 
enough for all emergencies. The fountain might now and then 
choke for awhile by the accumulations of worldly prosperity ; 
but when persecution came the obstruction rapidly disappeared, 
and charity flowed freely and copiously as before. 

It will be seen, therefore, that even in the point of liberality, 
the Primitive Church had a mark of distinction from other ages. 
Whatever she accomplished in that way was done sim- w „ 

1 \ Mark of 

ply in faith, and in the Name of Christ. There was the early 

Church. 

little or no help from that vague philanthropy which, 
like the promised "signs" 56 of the Gospel, maybe said to "fol- 
low them that believe " ; being, in fact, an accompanying power 
of the Truth, an attendant of Christian civilization in general, 
rather than a product of personal belief. In the first three cen- 
turies there was no Christendom, no Christian world. There 
was nothing of that moral atmosphere, warmed by the Gospel, 
if not quickened by it, of which a far-reaching, enlightened, 
and scientific benevolence — feeding the poor, healing the sick, 
casting out devils from the social system, and doing many won- 
derful and noble works — is a characteristic feature. The Church 
and the world then were in deadly antagonism. Chris- 

. . Opposition 

tianitv was, in fact, the Church in the wilderness. to the 

J ' World. 

Everything around was barren and hostile to her ; and 
Charity, to exist, was obliged to be armed at all points in the 
panoply of a simple, uncompromising Creed. 

On the whole, the power of Christianity was more manifest, 
during this period, than its softer and milder traits. It was not 
a time such as that described by the Prophet, when Militant 
" old men and old women" could " dwell in Jerusa- spint. 
lem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age ; or when 

5 6 Mark, xvi. 17, 18. The promise was fulfilled to the letter in Pente- 
costal times ; in the spirit it is fulfilled in the hospitals, homes, asylums, uni- 
versities, and other charities of Christian civilization; also, perhaps, in the 
scientific subjection of the elements of nature : a power by which Christendom 
is as far in advance of heathendom, as the Apostolic Church with her miracles 
was in advance of the age in which peregrinabatur — she was " a pilgrim." 



3 $6 History of the Church, 

the streets of the city " could be " full of boys and girls playing 
in the streets thereof." It was an era of Martyrs, Confessors, 
Doctors, Virgins, and Anchorets : a camp-life, as it were, hav- 
ing a glory and beauty of its own ; a sternly militant age, in 
which a man would part with his raiment to purchase him a 
sword, and in which the grace of endurance was preferred to 
virtues more comfortable and ordinarily more prized. The per- 
fect fruit of the period, its peculiar and supernatural grace, was 
N 0n . that of non-resistance to oppression. Nor was this vir- 

tue a mere softness on the part of Christians, — a mere 
abstinence from riots, insurrections, plots, and rebellions. It 
was an armed watch set at the very door of the lips. For three 
hundred years there was a society pervading the Roman world, 
consisting of men of every class and condition, and horribly 
oppressed, which, during all that period, did not even talk or 
think resistance. 57 However the yoke might gall them, they 
simply waited in quietness and confidence till the Hand that 
had put it on them should graciously take it off. 

And this quiet persistence was undoubtedly the secret of 

their strength. There were, as we have seen, corrup- 

Continu- tions among the early Christians, abuses, follies, super- 

ance. . . 

stitions. Scandals, perhaps, were almost as numerous 
in proportion to the number of believers as in any other age. 

57 " How often do ye spend your fury on the Christians ... in obedi- 
ence to the laws ! How often doth the hostile mob attack us . . . with 
stones and fire ! With the very frenzy of Bacchanals, they spare not the 
Christians even when dead. . . . And yet what retaliation for injury have 
ye ever marked in men so banded together, so bold in spirit even unto death ? 
— though a single night might with a few torches work out an ample ven- 
geance, if it were lawful with us that evil should be met by evil. . . . 
Would strength of numbers and forces be wanting to us ? . . . We are a 
people of yesterday : yet we have filled your cities, islands, castles, towns, 
assemblies, your very camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum ! 
. . . For what war would we not be sufficient and ready . . . who so will- 
ingly are put to death ? We could fight against you even unarmed and without 
rebelling ... by merely separating from you . . . and leaving you to 
tremble at your own desolation ... a vacant tenement for unclean spirits.' 1 
Tertull. Apolog. 37. See also Origen. Contra Cels. lib. iii. 



Church Growth and Life. 23J 

Yet, on the whole, amid changes going on all around, the 
Church alone stood firm and unalterable, witnessing to the same 
Truth, and witnessing in the same way, for three hundred years 
of almost continuous persecution. During all that period the 
Preacher preached, the Apologist explained, the Martyr died, 
the Bishop ruled, the Priest ministered, the Deacon gathered 
the poor, the Exorcist banned the demons, the Fossor delved in 
the bowels of the earth : in a word, the Church, kept together. 
But the same power which kept the Church together, kept the 
Truth together. When the end of the first trial came, and the 
fourth century opened upon a day sevenfold more laborious than 
any that had gone before it, it found the mass of the faithful 
through the world still united in one doctrine, one discipline, 
one worship, one spirit : a unity the more amazing that it was 
free and spontaneous, and accompanied with every form of par- 
tial inconsistency and weakness. Where one martyr had bled 
two hundred years before, there were now hundreds prepared to 
bleed for the same testimony. Now this persistency could pro- 
ceed only from faith. And faith in such a connection Living 
is but another word for life. In a living faith, there- att ' 

fore, not only unparalleled in itself, but exhibited under circum- 
stances without parallel in the history of mankind, we find the 
secret of the continued existence, growth, and triumph of Chris- 
tianity through the first and critical era of its manifestation. 

15 



Z3& History of the Church, 



CHAPTER IX. 

TIMES OF DIOCLETIAN. 

The forty years of peace, mentioned in the beginning of the 
last chapter, contributed not a little to the prosperity of the 
Forty years Church and to its growth in point of numbers. Bish- 
ops, no longer persecuted, began to be treated by all 
classes with a marked respect. Not a few Christians served in 
the household of Diocletian, countenanced by the faith of Prisca 
his wife and Valeria his daughter. There was, in fact, no posi- 
tion of trust that was not open to them ; the good-will of the 
princes having gone so far as to relieve them from all necessity 
of conformity to the State worship. It naturally followed that 
converts came in by crowds. The old places of worship had to 
be enlarged. New churches, spacious, magnificent, and 
ityand solid, were erected in all the chief cities. Sacred vessels 

Wealth. ' 

of gold and silver, collections of sacred books, and 
perhaps treasures of other kinds, began to accumulate in suffi- 
cient quantity and splendor to be a temptation to the eye of the 
spoiler, and to adtl another to the many causes of persecution 
that still existed, though hidden for the time by a deceitful show 
of peace. 

The usual attendants of prosperity were not slow to follow. 
Discipline was relaxed. Worldliness came in as a flood. The 

Episcopate, reverenced by the faithful*and honored by 

Corruption. . . . . . 

infidels, presented itself as a prize of spiritual ambi- 
tion. 1 Hence quarrels, intrigues, factions; all the evils, in short, 
with which the Church was created to contend, and for the war- 

1 Euseb. viii. I . 



Times of Diocletian, 339 

fare with which the long ages of martyrdom and of rigorous 
discipline were a barely sufficient preparation. 

What cause it was that led to a change of policy on the part 
of the Emperors, has been somewhat variously stated. It is only 
known that the able and prudent Diocletian, having Two 

divided the burden of government, first with the rude tnSTwo 
soldier Maximian, whom in reference to his own proud Ca;sc Zn. 
title of Jovius he surnamed the Herculius of his admin- 286, 29? - 
istration ; and afterwards with the two Ccescus, Galerius whom 
he stationed as a bulwark on the banks of the Danube, and Con- 
stantius similarly set for the defence of the borders of the Rhine ; 
and having strengthened this quadruple scheme by a skilful inter- 
lacing of matrimonial ties : proceeded with singular success to 
crush the innumerable enemies of the empire ; and crowned a 
long series of victories in Britain, Gaul, Africa, on the Rhine, 
the Danube, and the Nile, by the extraordinary glory of a tri- 
umph over those inveterate rivals of Rome, the defiant and for a 
long course of years indomitable Persians. He had thus attained 

the summit of human glory and success. The repose 

. A.D.303. 

of mind and body for which he sighed was now fairly 

within his reach. Under these circumstances, some evil genius 
— most probably Galerius, who passed a winter with the Empe- 
ror in his palace at Nicomedia just after the Persian war 2 — sug- 

2 L. C. F. Lactantii, De Mortibus Perse cutorum. Lutet. Paris, 1748. 
The spirited narrative of this writer is sharply criticized by Gibbon and Mil- 
man ; though neither of them deviate from it in any material point, and where 
they do, it is with very little reason or show of authority. Lactantius was 
probably an African by birth, a disciple of Arnobius, and an able rhetorician — 
"the Christian Cicero." Invited by Diocletian, he removed to Nicomedia 
some time before the persecution, and remained there probably during the ten 
years. He was intimate with the Christian and other members of the imperial 
household. On the whole, he had greater facilities for correct information 
about the events he describes than commonly fall to the lot of contemporary 
historians. Gibbon's objections to him, or rather his insinuations, are : (1) that 
he was an obscure rhetorician; i.e., a man devoted to literary labors, — an 
objection that would apply to most historians; (2) that he wrote to flatter the 
pride of the victorious court, — to which it is answer enough, that his book is 



34° History of the Church. 

gested to his mind that one enemy of the empire, more obstinate 

than the Persians, remained not only unconquered, 

against the but threatening if not soon checked to carry the whole 

Ltiristians. " J 

world before it. This enemy was the Church. Par- 
ticular cases could be mentioned of a dangerous fanaticism in 
this mysterious body. A youth in Africa of the name of Maxi- 
milian had pleaded scruples of conscience against serving in the 
pretext army, and had undergone death rather than consent 
f 07 to serve. Another Christian, Marcellus, a Centurion, 

had on a public holiday suddenly thrown away the ensigns of 
his office, abjured carnal weapons, and refused any longer to do 
the bidding of an idolatrous master. He also suffered death 
rather than submit. Could such examples be tolerated by a 
sovereign who had brought all the world to his feet ? Could a 
sect be allowed to flourish and to hold places of high trust in 
the very Palace, which fostered such ridiculous and rebellious 
scruples? 3 Galerius, for his part, had already answered theques- 
christians tion. He had weeded his own army of the dangerous 
e fromt7u sect - So also had Herculius, the valiant leader of the 
Army. West. 4 It only remained for Jovius, the wise and vic- 
torious inspirer of their counsels, to complete his great services 
by a triumph which no one before him had been able to achieve, 

dedicated, not to princes, but to an humble confessor; (3) that he is a pas- 
sionate declaimer, — a remark that applies equally to Tacitus, and to all histo- 
rians of any feeling who are called to describe the deeds of tyrants. The 
objections made to the authenticity of this treatise, De Mortibus Persecutorum, 
are founded chiefly on a supposed inferiority in point of style to the other works 
of Lactantius. On the other hand, there are many marks of his style ; and the 
less careful polish may be owing merely to the fact that the author, when he 
wrote, was more in earnest than in some of his other essays. On this and 
similar points, see notes to the edition mentioned above, Le Brzm, Dufresnoy, 
and others. 

3 These instances are taken by Gibbon from the Acta Sincera, Ruinart. 
In both cases the fear of idolatry was probably the cause of the scruple, though 
a feeling against the lawfulness of war was entertained by some Christians. 

4 Euseb. viii. 4, mentions that many had to sacrifice or leave the army ; 
but only a few here and there were put to death. The story of the Theban 
legion, which belongs to this period, is not related by any contemporary writer. 



Times of Diocletian. 341 

and to leave the Empire to his successors a united and homoge- 
neous whole. 

To suggestions of this kind many particular influences were 
added. Hierocles, 3 the philosophic leader of a revived paganism, 
did what he could for the cause. So, also, the mother special 
of Galerius, a fanatical devotee of idols. Finally, the Motl ™ s - 
oracle of Apollo at Miletus being consulted, the extermination 
of Christianity was declared necessary to appease the long-offended 
gods of the Empire, 6 Under such incentives, seconded by the 
innumerable pleas to which the ears of princes are open, Diocle- 
tian's hesitancy at length gave way : he decided on a general 
persecution, and appointed a day for the inauguration of a deci- 
sive religious war. 

It was the twenty-third of February, the feast of the Roman 
god Terminus : a day selected, says Lactantius, ut quasi ter- 
minus i?nponeretur huic Religioni. A little before the 
dawn, the Praetorian Prefect with a crowd of army "begun,, 

. A.D. 303. 

and state officers repaired m a body to the Church of 
Nicomedia, — a noble edifice which crowned a commanding 
height in full view of the Palace, and in a densely built quarter 
of the city. The doors are forced open. There is an eager 
rush and fruitless search for some visible object of worship. 
The Holy Scriptures are found and committed to the flames. 
A general pillaging ensues. Diocletian, who looked on from 
the Palace, thought it imprudent to gratify Galerius with the 
spectacle of a conflagration ; but the Praetorian guards being 
sent, with siege instruments of every description, the sacred 
pile, whose lofty site and solid structure had excited the jealous 
suspicion of the heathen, was in a few hours levelled with the 
ground. 

The example thus set was an index of the scheme of the 

5 He wrote against Christianity, and tried to prove that the works of 
Apollonius of Tyana were superior to those of Christ. He was answered by 
Eusebius and others. See Fabric. Lux Evangel, cap. viii. 

6 The Oracle replied that it could not speak, " on account of certain right- 
eous men." Euseb. Vit. Constant, ii. 50, 51. 



34 2 History of the Church. 

more prudent and perhaps more clement Diocletian. To de? 
Pi an stroy the churches of the Christians, to seize and burn 

$roj>oi t | ie - r | 1Q ^ k 00 k s? t0 13^^ U p |h e [ r Assemblies, and by 

the strong hand of power to prevent their ever reuniting, was 
the plan he seems to have proposed to himself. This example 
was followed even in those parts of the Empire where from mo- 
tives of clemency or secret favor, life and liberty were respected. 

The next day came the expected edict from the Palace. 7 
Christians of every grade were declared incapable of any office 
Edkt o/ or public trust; freemen were disfranchised, slaves 
wry ' forbidden to hope for freedom ; the courts of law 
were to be closed against the whole body ; and whatever they 
might suffer, they could sue for no redress. When this edict 
was put up, a certain Christian, fired with a zeal more natural 
than evangelical, 8 rushed forward and tore it down. "It is a 
triumph," he exclaimed, "of the Goths and Sarmatians ! " 
For this he was put to the torture, roasted before a slow fire, 
and finally thrown into the flames ; all which he endured with 
admirable and heroic patience. 

But severe as this edict was, it fell short of the wishes of the 
pertinacious Caesar. He continued to ply Diocletian with argu- 
Paiaceset ments and complaints ; and it served to give force to 
his urgency, that twice within the following fortnight 
the Palace was found to be on fire. The first time, according 
to the account of Constantine, 9 it was struck by lightning. The 

7 The various edicts of this persecution are found in Euseb. viii. 2, 3, 6, 
8, 10 ; and De Martyr. Palest. 3. Lactant. De Mort. Pers. 13 et ss. See 
Fabric. Lux. Evangel, cap. xii. 

8 Gibbon's sneers at this and a few similar cases of natural though intem- 
perate zeal are sharply rebuked by Guizot, and mildly disapproved by Dean 
Milman. See notes to Milman's Gibbon, chap. xvi. Lactantius, it is to be 
observed, praises only the courage of the man who destroyed the edict : his act 
he expressly condemns. Eusebius, however, seems rather to approve it: viii. 5. 

9 Constantine, in his Orat. chap, xxv., mentions the lightning. Lac- 
tantius mentions two fires, and attributes them both to Galerius. Milman 
well observes, that if a Christian fanatic had been the culprit, he would have 
avowed the deed and gloried in it. 



Times of Diocletian, 3 l\ 3 

act, however, was on both occasions generally attributed to 
an incendiary ; though who the guilty party was, no cause 

• ' . , 1 j j • Tt unknown. 

inquiries nor even tortures could discover. It was 
only known, that everybody was examined except the servants 
of Galerius. He, however, was clamorously indignant ; con- 
ducted the investigations himself; laid the whole blame to the 
Christians ; and finally left the Palace in well-feigned alarm. 
After his departure no further attempt was made. 

Diocletian by such arts was worked into a fury unworthy of 
the character for prudence he had hitherto maintained. His 
wife Prisca and his daughter Valeria were forced to cruelties 
sacrifice. The Eunuchs of the Palace, among whom in fi lcte * 
Dorotheus, Gorgonius, and Peter, are particularly mentioned by 
Eusebius, were tortured over a slow fire and at length put to 
death. The Christians of Nicomedia experienced a similar 
treatment. Some were gathered in companies, without regard 
to age or sex, and consumed within a ring of flames. Others, 
with heavy stones attached to them, were cast into the sea and 
drowned. To terrify others, unheard-of tortures were in- 
vented. 10 

There have been periods in history when Christians, 
separated from their kind by an unnatural asceticism, in an 
age of barbarous manners, or amid the madness of similar 
revolutionary times, have inflicted similar sufferings ^TJtil'er 
upon their fellows. In behalf of such it may be Umes - 

pleaded, that they insanely believed themselves to be doing 
God service. Their cruelty, therefore, may be set down to the 
hallucinations engendered by a solitary life, or to the frenzy 
of long-continued civil or domestic warfare. No such excuse 
can be made for the magistrates of Diocletian's day. No excuse 
They were husbands, fathers, citizens, men of sagac- f° rthem - 
ity and experience, living in an age of domestic tranquillity and 
security, and votaries of a religion which made tolerance its 
boast. When we see such men, therefore, not only persecuting 
a peaceable class of their fellow-creatures, but using all the ap- 

10 Lactant. De Mori. Pers. xv. : Euseb. viii. 6. 



344 History of the Church. 

pliances of science to prolong the agony and sport to the utmost 
limits of endurance, we behold a depth of depravity beyond 
which, it is to be hoped, none deeper can be imagined. If any 
can be found, it is in the unfeeling profanity which, in an age 
still more enlightened and more human, can palliate such doings 
and coldly take part with the oppressor against the oppressed. 

It is beyond the plan of this history to go into the partic- 
ulars of the long and cruel war which for ten years was carried 
General on against the unresisting Christians." It extended 
nt ' into all the provinces, except the Gauls. There Con- 
stantius Chlorus complied with the wishes of the elder Sover- 
eigns so far as to demolish the church buildings : the true 
temple, says Lactantius, he left unmolested. His underlings, 
it is probable, were not in all cases equally forbearing. Britain, 
at this time, received its first baptism in blood : S. Alban, two 
& Aiban, citizens of Chester, and sundry other persons in other 
m Bntam. pj aceSj having been put to death. 12 In the rest of the 
provinces believers of either sex were burned, drowned, or 
slaughtered, not singly but in crowds. The prisons and mines 
were filled with confessors. Virgins were ravished or driven 
to the alternative of suicide. The sacred books and vessels 
Course were seized and destroyed : those who refused to give 
pursued. th em U p we re put to the torture. Officers were sta- 
tioned at the temples to force the people to sacrifice ; and that 
no Christian might have a chance of justice, altars were setup in 
the courts and in front of the tribunals, so that the judges could 
not be approached without offering to idols. 

Of the number that suffered it is difficult to obtain a satis- 
factory account. Basing the calculation upon nine Episcopal 
Number of Martyrs particularly mentioned by Eusebius, and 
Martyrs. U p on t j ie n inety-two Martyrs of Palestine commem- 
orated by the same writer, Gibbon would reduce the whole 
number to about two thousand persons. But Eusebius does not 

11 In the 8th book of Eusebius, and in the work of Lactantius, there are 
details enough : also in Ruinart. Ada Sincera. 

12 Bede, Eccl. H. cap. vii. 



Times of Diocletian. 345 

profess to give more than a list of those cases which were known 
to himself or were particularly edifying. Of the hundreds who 
were barbarously mutilated and condemned to a lingering death 
in prison or in the mines, he makes only a passing mention. 13 
He also avoids particularizing those whose martyrdom was sullied 
in his opinion by anything unworthy of so honorable a calling. 
Now it is a well-known fact that follies and infirmities are often 
accompaniments of heroic self-devotion. The roll of the Pales- 
tine Martyrs, therefore, is, on every reasonable suppo- 
sition, only a select list \ and bears probably the same 
relation to the whole number that suffered, as the names of offi- 
cers in a gazette to the undistinguished victims of the rank and 
file. The persecution was undoubtedly a mighty effort to crush 
Christianity. More than once the tyrants boasted that they 
had succeeded in the attempt. 14 That in such an endeavor, 
continued for ten years, they accomplished nothing more than 
the death of some two thousand persons, is as contrary to rea- 
son as to the testimony of all early writers. 

In the meanwhile Diocletian, having celebrated his Persian 
triumph in Rome and returned to Nicomedia, came to the rare 
determination of resigning his authority and retiring The 

into the shades of private life. A tedious illness, Abdicate, 
with an ever-increasing sense of weariness and disgust, AD- 3 ° 5- 
gave force to the philosophic reasons which may have led to 
this resolve. A greater weight was attributed by some, and 

*3 See B. viii. 13; also Mart, of Pal. ch. 13. For Eusebius's common 
way of giving only noted examples, see also viii. 6 ; iii. 33 ; v. preface ; 
vi. 1, etc. That believers were slaughtered in crowds has the testimony of 
Lactantius, xv., and Euseb. viii. 9, 11, etc. Eusebius's profession (viii. 2 and 
Mart. Palest. 12) to omit particulars both of calamities and of follies and 
dissensions that led to those calamities, is quoted by Gibbon as evidence 
against his honesty ; but, in computing the number of Martyrs (a matter upon 
which it bears materially) the profession is conveniently forgotten. 

x 4 Trophies were set up at Clunia in Spain and elsewhere : Diocletianus 
Jovius, Maximianus Herculius, . . . nomine Christianorum deleto . . . 
etc. ; or, superstitione Christi ubique deleta, cultu Deorum propagate Baron. 
Annal. an. 304. 

15* 



346 History of the Church. 

with no little probability, to the ambitious urgency of his im- 
perious son-in-law, the Caesar Galerius. However this may be, 
abdication is a dangerous experiment to one who has made a 
free use of absolute power. Diocletian resigned with a show 
of dignity. But it was with undisguised reluctance that the 
Western Augustus Maximian, bound by a previous oath to his 
colleague, and, as Lactantius suggests, 13 influenced by the 
threats of Galerius, followed the extraordinary example, and 
retired to a solitude which he eagerly left again as soon as a 
favorable opportunity presented. 

The empire of the world devolved upon Galerius in the 
East, and Constantius in the West. To reconstruct the quad- 
Poiicy of ruple scheme of Diocletian, it would have fallen to 
Gaienus. eac ]-j f these two to nominate a Caesar. Galerius 
took the whole arrangement into his own hands. By a politic 
stroke, in which the feelings of the abdicating sovereigns seem 
to have been as little consulted as those of Constantius, he pre- 
sented to the army two ignoble creatures of his own, under the 
title of Caesars. One of these, Severus, he sent to 
Italy ; where he stayed long enough to make himself 
odious by a terrible system of exactions, but was soon con- 
fronted, overwhelmed, and slain, in the revolt of the usurper 
Maxentius the son of Maximian : which latter had been easily 
persuaded to resume the purple. The other, named 

Maximin. r 1 n i tv/t • • 

Daza or as he was afterwards called Maximin, was 
commissioned to tyrannize over Egypt and Syria. A third prize 

x 5 The highly probable account that Lactantius gives of these transac- 
tions, is somewhat injured by his throwing it (according to classic precedents) 
into a dramatic fori?!. Milman thinks that the picture drawn by " the coarse 
and unfriendly pencil of the author of the Treatise " is inconsistent with " the 
profound subtlety " ascribed to Diocletian's character. But no profound sub- 
tlety is attributed to him. It is merely the commonplace cunning of laying 
the blame of his cruel actions upon his counsellors : " qui severitatem suam 
aliena invidia vellet explere." Eutrop. ix 26. To this kind of character the 
portrait drawn by Lactantius is perfectly true. Indeed, it is true enough to 
Diocletian's character, even as softened and excused by the skilful pen of 
Gibbon. 



Times of Diocletian. 347 

which Galerius had within easy reach, and which he was reserv- 
ing for his old friend and comrade Licinius, was snatched from 
his eager grasp by the superior promptitude of young Constan- 
tine, the son of the Western Emperor, Constantius. Escape 0/ 
This young man, born before his father had attained Constantine > 
the rank of Caesar, and deprived of all hopes of the succession 
by the new matrimonial arrangements which followed that 
event, 16 had attached himself to the service of Diocletian, and 
at the time of the abdication was one of the most promising 
officers of the army. Galerius was aware of his importance, 
and laid a skilful plan to secure him. But the young soldier 
was on the alert. Stealing a march on the crafty approaches of 
the tyrant, he sped from Nicomedia as fast as post-horses could 
carry him ; and arrived at Boulogne just in time to accompany 
his father on an expedition to North Britain, to receive at York 
a dying blessing from his lips, and to be forced by the 

J ° 3 L , J Const ant hie 

not unwelcome violence of the army into the adoption elected by 

the A rmy. 

of the title of Augustus. The announcement of this 
was sent, with many plausible excuses, to the Eastern Emperor. 
He received it in grim acquiescence. Conceding to Constan- 
tine, however, only the secondary title of Caesar, he conferred 
the name of Augustus on his favorite Severus ; but, 

Licinius. 

this latter soon going to wreck before the triumphant 
usurpation of Maxentius, the honor finally devolved upon Licin- 
ius for whom he had from the first designed it. 

Thus the Roman world was partitioned among six masters : 
Galerius, holding a trembling balance between two Augusti, 
Maximin and Licinius, in the East ; and the old war- six Heads, 
rior Maximian, nominally respected by Constantine A,D ' 3 ° 8 ' 
and Maxentius, in the West : under all of whom, except Con- 
stantine, the edicts of persecution continued to be enforced 
against the Christians. But the number of oppressors was 
rapidly reduced by various reverses. 

16 Constantius divorced Helena the mother of Constantine, and married 
Theodora the daughter of Maximian. In the same way, Galerius had to 
marry Valeria, Diocletian's daughter. 



34-8 History of the Church. 

In the East, Galerius giving himself up to dissolute living, 
fell a prey to that horrible and loathsome disease, which is 
Fearful famous for having quelled the pride of two other dis- 
Ga/erius, tinguished persecutors, Herod the Great and Philip 
a.d. 3 i. jj f Spain. He was almost literally eaten up of 
worms. 17 A tumor, badly healed, festered into a spreading 
sore, which became a nest of innumerable vermin and filled the 
whole Palace at Nicomedia with its pestilential effluvia. In 
vain Apollo was applied to for relief. Nurses and physicians 
could approach the sick man only at the peril of their lives. 
Under the torture of this fearful plague, his body visibly cor- 
rupting from day to day, but his mind still struggling with 
natural feelings of remorse, he at length put forth an edict of 
toleration, remarkable for its apologetic and almost penitent 
Edict of tone. 18 "It had been his wish," he declared, "that 
Toleration. the Christians should be reclaimed from the folly of 
forming a separate society in the State, and should return to the 
customs of their fathers. Many had been put in peril of their 
lives, some had been punished with death. But, inasmuch as 
the greater part continued obstinate in their delusion, and were 
falling into a state in which they neither worshipped the gods 
nor served the Deity of the Christians, therefore it seemed best, 
in accordance with the uniform mildness and clemency of his 
reign, to grant them a certain indulgence ; that they might 
hold their assemblies as before, and entreat their God for the 
safety of the Emperor and the State as well as for their own, 
that prosperity and security might everywhere abound." 

In the contest for empire between Maxim in and Licinius 

which followed the tyrant's death, this tardy indulgence was 

of little avail to the Christians. Maximin, indeed, 

Maximin. * i 1 i 

seemed for awhile to have relented ; and, encouraged 
by edicts from him similar to that of Galerius, the Christian:? 

*? Lactantius describes it with a fearful minuteness : De Mori. Pers* 
xxxiii. ; also Euseb. viii. 1 6. 

18 Given at length in Lactantius, xxxiv., and Eusebius, Eccl. Hist, viii 
1 6. 



Times of Diocletian, 349 

came forth from their concealment with hymns of joy, and 
resumed the celebration of their sacred rites. The treacherous 
calm lasted hardly six months. At a hint from the A Brie f 
Emperor petitions came in from the principal cities, Calm. 

that measures of severity might be resumed. Persecution began 
once more, but in a milder form: persuasion, intimidation, and 
punishments short of death, being strongly recommended. 19 
At the same time an effort was made to give greater dignity 
to pagan worship. Priests and high-priests, of decent moral 
character and of high social rank, were appointed. A 

° . rr , Reform 

gorgeous ceremonial was devised. The old gods, of Pagan 

. . . Worship. 

revamped, as it were, with new attributes adopted 
from Christianity, were set up in splendid shrines, and pro- 
pitiated by feasts and sacrifices and magical incantations. 

On the other hand, the Gospel was assailed with the weapons 
of ridicule. Forged acts of Pilate, 20 full of blasphemies against 
Christ, were widely circulated, and taught to young weapons of 
persons in the schools. The dignity of dying for the Contem pu 
Faith was denied to believers. Tortured and mutilated, with 
their eyes put out, or branded with other marks of shame, they 
were hidden away in dungeons or banished to the mines. So 
elated was Maximin with the apparent success of his endeavors 
— the gods smiling upon him, as he proclaimed, in teeming 
harvests, genial seasons, and in the unexampled prosperity of 
his dominions — that he carried the religious war be- conquest of 
yond his own borders into the Christian kingdom of Armema - 
Armenia, and succeeded in establishing the persecution there. 

But his confidence was soon shaken by a terrible series of 
reverses. First, his insatiable licentiousness inspired universal 
execrations : the eunuchs, who scoured the provinces . Terrible 
for victims to his lusts, making the vile quest more Reverses - 
odious by gratuitous insults and indignities. Tax-gatherers fol- 
lowed the eunuchs, and, if possible, were still more hated. 

J 9 Many, however, were put to death ; and among others Peter the Mar- 
tyr, Bishop of Alexandria. See Euseb. Book IX. 
20 Euseb. ix. v. 



35° History of the Church, 

Then came a general drought and an unprecedented famine. 
The rich were reduced to beggary, beggars were massacred 01 
drowned. An awful pestilence followed close upon the famine. 
In the midst of these calamities the charity of believers was 
enabled to shine forth again. Amid despair and desolation 
„ . they did their duty to the sufferers of every kind. 

Charity J J 

of the Not content to visit and relieve the sick, they fought 

Christians. jo 

with the street dogs for the abandoned bodies of the 
dying or the dead. At length, Heaven smiled once more upon 
the despairing provinces. Maximin, defeated by Licinius, first 
turned his rage against the pagan priesthood who had incited 
him to civil war ; then wandered wildly from place to place, 
attempting to rally his resources ; till at length taking poison, 
but not in sufficient quantity to destroy life at once, he was 

slowly eaten up by an internal fire, and so miserably 
Maximin, perished. 21 Before his death he issued a new and 

A.D. 313. . # , 

ample edict of toleration and redress to the Chris- 
tians ; in which he apologized for himself, and laid all the 
severities of the persecution to the door of the officers and 
judges. 

The splendid Church of Tyre, demolished during the perse- 
cution, but now rebuilt on its old site with greater magnificence 
church of than ever, signalized in one place the restoration of 
yre ' Christian worship. The example was followed in 

other cities. The death of Maximin was not merely a deliver- 
ance of the Church; it was accompanied everywhere with a 
joyful munificence, an uncalculating zeal in restoring her waste 
places, and a promptness of restitution on the part of the 
heathen, that showed her to have gained, even in things tem- 
poral, far more than she had lost. 

In Italy and North Africa, Maxentius, the twin monster 
of Maximin, 22 a prodigy of superstition, cruelty, rapacity and 

21 The horrible description of his end is given with much fulness by 
Euseb. ix. 10. 

22 Euseb. De Vita. Const, i. 33-38 ; Eccl. Hist. viii. 14 ; Zosim. HisU 
Nov. lib. ii. 



Times of Diocletian. 351 

lust, had in the earlier days of his usurpation pretended to 
favor the Christians. Having succeeded, however, in 

Maxentius 

gaining the good-will of the army by largesses and in the 

flattery, and having by the aid of Maximian his 
father baffled all the efforts of Severus and Galerius, he gave 
himself over to the fiend of licentiousness, and became an ob- 
ject of abhorrence to all his subjects alike. Like Maximin he 
indulged in a wantonness of debauchery, which set all law and 
all social ties at defiance. The maid or matron that once 
attracted his eye, had no refuge from dishonor but in self- 
destruction. Sophronia, a Christian lady, wife of the Prefect 
ot the city, adopted this mode of escape. The tyrant's minions 
were ready imitators of his foul example. To make his turpi- 
tude complete, the vague religious feeling which had inclined 
him at one time to favor the Church, led him finally into a 
mire of the most grovelling and insane superstitions. 

Whether he persecuted directly for religion's sake, is Supersti- 
tion. 
somewhat doubtful. It is more probable that the 

sufferings of the Christians under his reign, were consequences 

of the general state of outlawry in which the edict of Diocletian 

had placed them, rather than of any particular hostility on the 

part of the western tyrant. 

The old chief Maximian, who on his son's usurpation had 
resumed the purple and the title of Augustus, and had been 
his main stay in military affairs, soon found his alii- End of 
ance unendurable, and took refuge with Constantine Maximian - 
in Gaul. But the unhappy old man was a restless agitator. 
Twice detected in treason against his host and son-in-law — for 
Constantine had married his daughter Fausta, receiving with 
her as a dowry the coveted title of Augustus — he was allowed 
no other mercy than that of " free death," and perished igno- 
miniously by his own hand. 

Maxentius eagerly availed himself of this as a pretext for a 
quarrel. He hated Constantine intensely ; and when War 

the latter, with a zeal more creditable to his justice Prodaimed - 
than to his humanity, followed up the death of his wife's father 



35 2 History of the Church. 

by erasing his titles, and throwing down his statues, the oppor- 
tunity for a display of filial piety was considered too good to be 
neglected. Maxentius immediately gave orders, throughout 
Italy and North Africa, to overthrow the images of Constan- 
tine. In the contest that ensued, the latter did not wait to be 
attacked. With a promptitude and energy which entitle him to a 
high place among military leaders, he conducted his small army 
across the Cottian Alps ; routed the best generals of Maxentius 
in several well-contested fields, and marching steadily and rapidly 
victory o/ towards Rome, finally overwhelmed the usurper in a 

Constantine, 

a.d. 312. great battle under the walls of the city. Maxentius was 
found drowned in one of the marshes of the Tiber. Before he 
End of na -d left Rome for the decisive field, he had taken care 
Maxentius. tQ consmt tne Sibylline Books. On that day, ran the 
answer of the prudent oracle, the enemy of the Romans shall 
perish. The Romans indeed rejoiced that their enemy had 
perished j and the acclamations which greeted the conqueror 
were those of men who had nothing more to lose, and conse- 
quently everything to gain, from a change of masters. 23 All this 
happened about a year before the death of Maximin. It was 
followed by an alliance between Constantine and Licinius, and 
by a series of events in the East, already in part related. 

Thus Constantine in the West and Licinius in the East, 
both of them favorably disposed towards the Chris- 

Constantine 

and tians, remained to divide the Roman world between 

Licinius. 

them, or, if necessary, to contest the supremacy by a 
renewal of bloody strife. 

In the meanwhile, the almost forgotten Diocletian had lived 
long enough in his chosen retreat at Salona, to taste the bitter 
Diocletian fruits of the seeds of tyranny he had sown. Whether 
at Saiona. j ie troubled himself with the afflictions of the Empire 
is by no means certain. At all events, no influence for good 
was allowed him. It is probable that he was soon made aware 
of the necessity of receiving passively and in silence whatever 
might befall him. 

*3 Euseb. Vita Constant. ; Zosimus, Hist. ii. 



Times of Diocletian, 353 

Valeria his daughter had been given in marriage to Gale- 
rius, 24 to whom she bore no children, but performed faithfully 
the duty of a mother to Candidianus, his illegitimate 

J Fate of his 

son. On the death of the Augustus, the beauty and wife and 

..... Daughter. 

wealth of the widowed Empress proved an irresistible 
bait to the brutal Maximin. But Valeria rejected his advances 
with becoming dignity. She was therefore sent into exile, with 
her property confiscated, her reputation blasted, her attendants 
subjected to the torture, and her female friends put to death on 
foul and false accusations. When tidings of this came to Dio- 
cletian, he ventured to entreat of the monster that his daughter 
might be suffered to share his retreat at Salona, and comfort his 
last moments. His humble petition was in vain. Af- 

... His 

terwards, on the triumph of Licinius, a gleam of hope, Petition 

rejected. 

founded on the debt of gratitude due from that con- 
queror to Galerius, induced the princess, accompanied by her 
mother, Prisca, to throw herself on his mercy and seek the pro- 
tection of his court. She was the more easily led to this from 
learning that Candidianus was in favor there. She was soon 
undeceived. Candidianus, as also Severianus, the son of Seve- 
rus, had imperial blood in them, and were therefore put to 
death. Fearing a similar fate, the two empresses fled, in the 
disguise of peasants. After fifteen months of wandering from 
place to place, all Asia the meanwhile resounding with their 
woes, they were at length discovered and recognized at Thessa- 
lonica. Their doom had been long since pronounced. In the 
presence of a great crowd of people, they were both beheaded, 
and their bodies thrown into the sea. 

Such was the sad end of Diocletian's family. Of his own 
latter days little is known beyond an uncertain rumor 

His own 

that, maddened 25 by the ingratitude and neglect of all end, 

whom he had benefited, and by the pitiable fate of the 

few who might be supposed to have cherished some affection 

^Lactant. De Mort. Pers. 39-41. 

2 5 Milman and Gibbon make light of the story of Diocletian's madness. 
Eusebius and Lactantius both mention it. The latter says that, after his long 



354 History of the Church. 

for him, he withdrew from the troubles of life, as he had fled 
from those of empire, by a voluntary act. His death, however, 
has been attributed by some to dropsy, by some to poison, and 
by others to a protracted state of insomnia, in which he was 
unabxe to take food or rest. 26 



CHAPTER X. 

THE VICTORY OF CONSTANTINE. 

The victory of Constantine was the beginning of the triumph 
of the Christian Religion. When he first announced the bold 
plan of attempting with hardly more than forty thousand avail- 
able soldiers, 1 the conquest of Italy, defended by an army of at 
least four times the number, his friends remonstrated, and his 
officers could not lefrain from murmurs of disapprobation. 2 But 
the boldness of this scheme was as nothing, compared with that 
which he was destined to undertake and to achieve. It was no 
Cotistantine ^ ess tnan to abjure the old traditions of the Empire, 
Christian an d to identify himself with an apparently broken and 
certainly unmilitary party, which neither in his army, 
nor in Italy, nor in Rome, nor in the Empire at large, was of 

illness previous to his abdication, he revived, but not wholly ; for at certain 
times he was insane, but at other times in his senses. The humorous philos- 
ophy he displayed in his retirement, and his famous bon mot, that no man who 
can raise his own cabbages ought to covet the cares of empire, are not incon- 
sistent with such intennittent insanity. Witty men are not necessarily sane 
men. 26 Lactant. xlii. 

1 Zosimus gives him eighty thousand men in all ; but, as Gibbon shows, 
not more than half that number could have been spared for the campaign in 
Italy. 

2 A heathen panegyrist says : " What God, what present Deity inspired 
thee, when almost all thy generals not only murmured in secret, but openly 
expressed their fears, against the advice of men, against the warnings of aus- 
pices," etc., etc. : "omnibus fere Comitibus et Ducibus, non solum tacite mus- 
santibus, sed omen aperte timentibus." 



The Victory of Constantine. 355 

an)' political importance ; and which could nowhere claim to be 
more than a respectable minority of the population. To ascribe 
such a venture to mere political calculation, is to affirm a greater 
wonder than any of those recorded in legendary fiction. Nor 
can we set his conduct to the account of any deep affection for 
the Gospel, or for its persecuted followers. His life was hardly 
that of a true Christian man. Indeed, he never professed to be 
other than an outside pillar of the Church ; and his baptism was 
deferred till just before his death. These things considered, 
Constantine' s own account 3 of the matter seems more simple 
and more credible than any of the theories which have been 
framed in explanation of his extraordinary conduct. 

3 Euseb. De Vit. Constant, i. 26-30, 36 ; Socrat. Eccl. Hist. i. 2. Lac- 
tantius mentions only that " Constantine was told in a dream to put the sign 
on the arms of his soldiers : " De Mort. Pers. 44; which is an addition, not 
a contradiction, to the story as related by Eusebius. So the heathen Nazarius, 
in Panegyr. ad C. 14: "It was bruited all through the Gauls, that armies 
zvere seen which declared they were divinely sent," etc. : which, again, is not 
a contradiction, but a popular exaggeration. Many modern critics, such as 
Milman, Neander, Gieseler, Schrockh, Manso, ascribe the wonder partly to 
excited imagination, partly to the appearance of some brilliant cross-like phe- 
nomenon in the heavens : a mode of explanation as hard to understand, and 
not a whit easier to believe, than the original simple facts as related by Con- 
stantine. It gives new names to things, however, and has the merit of being 
thought philosophical. As to Milman's and Mosheim's objection, that the 
story presents " the meek and peaceful Jesus" as " a God of battles" ; there 
is a sufficient answer in Isaiah, xlv. 1-7. It is the Lord who "holds the right 
hand" of the conqueror, " to subdue nations before him," and to work deliv- 
erance for His people. God is in history, and in the world, as well as in 
Grace. It has also been urged, that if the appearance had been really super- 
natural, Constantine' s conversion would have been more genuine than it seems 
to have been. But this is to mistake the operation of " signs and wonders." 
Their utmost effect is to convince the mind (as in the case of Simon Magus), 
not necessarily to convert the heart. As to the particular wonder under dis- 
cussion, the position of the Church at that time was a dignus vindice nodus. 
Believers everywhere had been ten years (nay, three hundred years) crying to 
the Lord for deliverance. That the deliverance, when it came, should be 
signalized by extraordinary tokens of the Hand that wrought it, seems to me 
a rational as well as religious belief. 



3 5 6 History of the Church. 

From his father Constantius and his mother Helena, and 
from his own observation of the terrible doom of those who 
His Course na d opposed themselves to the Gospel, he had imbibed 
cxpia cd. ag muc ] 1 Q f Christian faith as a liberal and sagacious, 
but not scrupulous, mind could be expected to receive. This 
was not much ; but it was enough to make him ponder the 
weakness of human strength, and to pray for the support of an 
overruling Power. Maxentius, under the same circumstances, 
had resorted to horrible sacrifices and demoniacal incantations. 
Constantine, too enlightened for. such superstitions, could only 
turn with vague desire, though with little of the faith that 
springs from love, towards the great Deity whose hand he rec- 
ognized in the startling events of his times, the mysterious God 
of the Christians. It was then, according to his own 

His I ision. 

testimony, that a wonderful vision was vouchsafed. 
About midday or a little after, there appeared in the heavens, 
just above the sun, the trophy of a Cross of light, bearing the 
inscription, By This Conquer. This was witnessed also by the 
whole army. In his sleep the night following, Christ appeared 
to him with the same sign, and commanded him to have a 
standard made in the same image, and to use it in all engage- 
The ments against his enemies. In accordance with this 

m ' instruction the far-famed Labarum was made ; and 
when the conqueror entered Rome, his first act was to set up in 
that proud city the trophy of the Cross, surmounted by the AJ, 
so often conspicuous afterwards in the van of the Roman armies. 
The readiness with which the Romans acquiesced in this 
momentous revolution, is not less wonderful than the boldness 

and decision with which it was brought about. That 

Rome 

submit, to zeal for polytheism was by no means extinct in the great 
metropolis, had been recently shown by a furious out- 
break in vindication of the honor of the popular goddess For- 
tuna. Some soldier, it appears, had uttered a word depreciatory 
of the idol. 4 It had required the utmost efforts of Maxentius to 

•* Whether this soldier was a Christian is not mentioned: Losim. Hist, 
ii. 13. 



The Victory of Constantine. 357 

put an end to the tumult that ensued. But on the entrance of 
Constantine into the city, this zeal for paganism seems suddenly 
to have died away. Amid a general approbation, a sect never 
strong in numbers, generally disliked, and for three hundred 
years depressed, whose foremost Bishop had lately been forced 
to act the part of groom 5 in the imperial stables, is suddenly 
elevated to the height of power ; the traditions of a thousand 
years or more are quietly set aside ; and an entirely new order 
of things is triumphantly initiated. 

However all this may be explained by political or philo- 
sophic reasons, it is not to be wondered at that the Christians 
should have regarded it in the light of a great deliver- General 
ance ; a divine intervention the more welcome that Re J° lcrn s- 
it came at their hour of utmost need. And such undoubtedly 
was their universal feeling. From one end of Christendom to 
the other there was one harmonious cry: The Lord hath done 
great things for us, whereof we rejoice ! Even the cold and 
phlegmatic historian of the period, the cautious and (if all 
reports be true) timorous Eusebius, 6 was warmed up into a glow 

s Such is said to have been the punishment of Pope Marcellus : Anastas. 
Vit. Marcell. Eusebius refers to this or some similar case in Mart, of 
Palest, xii. 

6 Eusebius, surnamed Pamphilus, and known as " the father of Church 
history," was not only a man of great industry and learning, with eve ry facility 
for acquiring a just knowledge of the events he describes, but singularly 
cautious, skeptical, without a spark of the dangerous light of genius, and little 
in harmony with the enthusiasm of the age in which he lived. Eorn in Pales- 
tine about the year 259, and educated in the latitudinarian school of Origen 
and his disciples, he kept within the pale of orthodoxy, but sympathized with 
those who were out of the pale. He was imprisoned during the great perse- 
cution ; but having been let off without scars, he was both privately suspected 
and publicly accused (on insufficient grounds, however) of having purchased 
his immunity by dishonorable concessions. When the peace came he was 
made Bishop of Csesarea. In the Arian strife he shuffled a little, but finally 
subscribed to the Nicene Creed. He was a favorite of Constantine, and on 
the deposition of Eustathius of Antioch was offered that See ; but prudently 
declined the dangerous honor. On the whole, judging him, not by the severe 
rule of the early Church, but by a charity fifteen hundred years older and 



35^ History of the Church. 

of sympathetic feeling. His Panegyric on the Rebuilding of 
the Churches shows, in its very extravagance of language, 
that the joy of the day could be content with no moderate 
expressions. The general delight, in fact, was a sort of intoxi- 
cation. The cry was no longer, " We have heard with our ears 
what our forefathers have told us ;" but, "As we have heard so 
have we seen in the city of the Lord of Hosts, in the city of our 
God." The destruction, root and branch, within so short a 
space of time, of so many powerful oppressors, could not but 
create a feeling of awe and admiration. And, happily, this 
feeling was one in which the heathen could take part. They 
had been sufferers with the Christians ; they had reason to 
rejoice with them. They could join in the exulting cry: 7 
" Where now are the mighty names so famous among 

Causes of ° J b 

joy to the the nations? Where are the Jovii and Herculii, titles 

Heathen. . 

so insolently assumed by Diocles and Maximian, and 
so pitifully disgraced by their infamous successors? The Lord 

proportionately more indulgent, he was a moderate and prudent, and (so far 
as we can judge) a pious and good man. His credit as a historian deservedly 
stands high. His prejudices were for the most part against that party, which 
finally proved dominant in the Church ; and where they come in, he has not 
the rhetorical skill to conceal them. His way of relating Constantine's vision 
and similar wonders, shows that credulity was not among his failings. Gibbon 
objects to him, that in two places of his history, he avows an intention to record 
only the transactions that he deemed creditable to the Church. Whoever will 
read those passages (Lib. viii. 2, and Mart, of Palest. 12) will see that he 
merely declines to particularize certain scandals, which, however, he fully 
mentions in the gross, and in a way more damaging on the whole, than if he 
had given the details. His care to apprise the reader when he omits any facts 
of that kind, is a strong proof his scrupulous fidelity ; and it would be an im- 
provement on the general character of history, if all historians were to adopt 
the same rule. 

7 Lactant. De Mort. Pers. 1. lii. The abominable character of these 
tyrants as described by the two Church historians is fully borne out by the 
heathen Zosimus : Hist. ii. It is remarkable, by the way, that Gibbon and 
Milman, who take every opportunity to discredit the two Church historians 
refer to Zosimus — whose fanatical hatred of Christianity leads him to the most 
absurd statements — without a word of censure or of caution. See Gibbon, rh. 
xvi., and Milman's notes. 



The Victory of Constantino 359 

hath destroyed them and wiped them from the earth. It is 
the Lord's triumph, the victory of the Lord. He hath looked 
down upon the earth. His flock, torn and scattered by raven- 
ing wolves, He hath brought together and healed. The wicked 
beasts, which trampled down His pastures and dissipated his 
folds, He hath utterly exterminated!" It was, in fact, a triumph 
of humanity. And if Christians carefully collected the partic- 
ulars of the horrible end of the oppressors, "lest either they 
should be forgotten, or lest some future historian should corrupt 
the truth, bypassing over in silence their sins against God, and 
God's judgments upon them ;" and if in this we can discern a 
little excess of natural exultation : it is but just to bear Exultation 
in mind that the early Christians were men of like pas- natu lnd 
sions with ourselves, but tried in a way that passes our excusable - 
experience, and almost our conceptions. The real wonder is, 
that a triumph so great, so sudden, and so unexpected, led to 
no acts of violent reprisal. A victory of such magnitude, and 
yet so little abused, is nowhere else recorded in the history of 
mankind. 

At the present day, we can see that this first victory of Chris- 
tianity was not so much a fulfilment, as a type or earnest, of that 
subjection of the kingdoms of the world, which after 

1 n- The Victory 

so many ages of varied conflict is still but a matter of «« earnest 

only. 

patient faith and hope. It was not the end of war. 
It was the beginning of a new and more complicated struggle. 
As, in the first victorious stage of the exodus from Egypt, the 
Israelites had only to "stand still and see the salvation of the 
Lord," 8 but in later stages were obliged to use their own arms; 
or, as in the conquest of the seven nations, Jericho the type-city 
was taken without a blow from man, but, in the capture of Ai 
and other places the People — having corrupted themselves by 
taking of " the accursed thing " 9 — were compelled to resort con- 
tinually to the use of human weapons : so it has proved in the 
militant progress of the Church. The first great victory was a 
free gift of God : a victory of simple faith. The people stood 
8 Exod. xiv. 13. 9 Josh. vii. 



360 History of the Church. 

still and saw the Lord work. They quietly waited till the bul- 
warks of Roman heathenism crumbled and fell before them. 
But since that time, corrupted more or less with the 

A I! arfare 

of Mixed wealth of the first conquest, it has been comparatively 

Elements. •11 

a warfare of mixed elements . human strength, human 
policy, spoils of Ai, snares of Gibeon, and that root of all the 
evil " the Babylonish garment," concealing as it were the Lord's 
arm from view, and making the Church almost undistinguishable 
from the world. 

The symptoms of this change were not slow in appearing. 
Almost the first greeting that came to the weak faith, or to the 
signs of a politic calculations of the victor, was from a broken 
New Em. an( j ^{ s t racted. Christianity. The mad schism of the 
Donatists appealed to an earthly conqueror to settle spiritual 
disputes. 10 The most desperate and bloody wars" that troubled 
Constantine's reign were levied against him in the name of the 
religion he had adopted. Similar difficulties encountered 
Licmius in the East; and, if he had any faith, contributed to 
shake it. 

This latter Emperor, in his contest with Maximin previously 
narrated, had inclined to the Christian cause from motives sim- 
Liciniusied il ar to those by which Constantine had been deter- 
c£s-° r mined. He could put no confidence in the gods of 
tiamty. Galerius and Maxentius. An alliance with Constan- 
tine, cemented by a marriage with his sister Constantia, which 
took place at Milan not long after the overthrow of Maxentius, 
helped to commit him more decidedly in the same direction. 
In addition to this, he is said to have had a dream just before 

10 Constantine's edict, on this occasion, is given with many others in 
Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. x. 

11 The violence of the Circumcelliones and the religious wars in Africa 
are vividly described in Milman's Hist, of Christianity, iii. I. In addition to 
the Donatist trouble, there was the schism of Meletius, with the outbreak of 
Arianism, quarrels among the Bishops, and innumerable other troubles, to 
shake the faith of a new convert. The divine caution, " Blessed is he whoso- 
ever shall not be offended 'in Me," was never more needed than in the moment 
of the first great victory. 



The Victory of Constantine, 361 

his decisive battle with Maximin, which induced him to pray to 
the Most High, and in His Name to cope with an army twice 
the number of his own. However this may be, his 

J ' Edicts of 

victorv was followed by edicts, 12 not merely of tolera- Restitution, 

A.D, "313. 

tion, but of the most ample restitution. Churches, 
cemeteries, and property of all kinds were to be restored fully 
and without delay. In return, Christians were to pray that the 
Divine favor, already so signally experienced by the Emperor, 
might be continued for all time to him and his successors. 

The war that soon broke out from the mutual jealousy of the 
two Emperors, put an end for the time being to this happy state 
of things. 13 Constantine's vigor proved superior, in 
two fiercely contested battles, to the tried skill and between 

the two 

more numerous forces of his veteran adversary. A Emperors, 
hollow peace ensued. The victor was confirmed in 
his allegiance to Christianity. The vanquished, sorely galled 
by his defeat, and irritated continually by the praises too lavishly 
bestowed upon his rival, began to hate the cause which self- 
interest alone had induced him to take up. His wrath was 
freely vented upon the Churches and the Clergy. He accused 
them of praying for Constantine more earnestly than for him. 
Persecution began once more to lower upon the East. w ew 

The assemblies of the faithful appeared again in the 0utra s es - 
light of conspiracies. Synods were forbidden. Even the favor- 
ite work of charity, the ministering to those in prison, could 
be performed only at the risk of sharing the doom of mal- 
efactors. In some places, Churches were demolished. In 
others, Bishops were made away with in secret. In short, Maxi- 

12 Lactant. De Mort. Pers. xlviii. ; Euseb. x. 5. The edict from Milan 
had been drawn up previously to the victory over Maximin, but was not put 
forth in the East till after that event. As the one given by Euseb. refers to a 
previous one not extant, Licinius probably made some additions to the original 
drawn up at Milan. 

T 3 Zosimus lays the blame of this war to the perfidy and ambition of Con- 
stantine. On such points party prejudices were too strong to allow us, in cases 
where motives are concerned, to attach much weight to the testimony of either 
heathen or Christian writers. 
16 



302 History of the Church. 

min and Maxentius seemed to have revived in the person of an 
old man more able than those tyrants, but not less cruel or 
second licentious. At length a breach with Constantine, in 

which the latter perhaps made zeal for Christianity a 
cloak for his own ambitious views, accompanied with prodigious 
preparations both by sea and land, threatened the exhaustion of 
what remained of the resources of the Empire. Constantine 
proved once more victorious. The great battle of Hadrianople 
shattered the land forces of Licinius. The siege and capture 
of Byzantium involved the ruin of his navy. A vigorous rally 
was followed by an overwhelming defeat at Chrysopolis, now 

called Scutari ; and the flight and ignominious sub- 

Licimus, mission of the tyrant, with his pardon at the instance 
A.D.324. 

of Ccnstantia his wife, proved but the forerunners of 

his summary execution, on such pleas of state necessity as a 

victorious monarch is seldom at a loss to find. 

Such was the end of Diocletian's policy. After thirty-seven 

years of divided rule, with incalculable losses, horrors, 

Constantine 

sole and calamities, the Roman world was once more united, 

Emperor. 

and the first Christian Emperor reigned with universal 
and undivided sway. 

Constantine attributed his victory, as usual, to the power 
of the Deity of the Christians. And this, so far as we have the 

means of judging, was for awhile at least the sum of 

Hegives J & &' 

God the his religion. His clear and hardy intellect, thoroughly 

Glory. 

awake (as was the case with the heathen mind in gen- 
eral 14 ) to a sense of that awful Nemesis which rules in the affairs 
of dynasties and nations, had been led to identify this great and 
mysterious power with the cause of a universally hated and per- 

x * The reader of Homer, Herodotus, iEschylus, and even Plutarch, knows 
how deep and real was this belief in a Divine Power of retribution, sure- 
footed though sometimes slow, among the ancient heathen. It was the Divine 
Witness in the heathen conscience to the unity of the Godhead. The barren- 
ness of mind which recognizes no Providence in History, no controlling 
Power, is peculiar to modern unbelief; and is conceivable only under such 
circumstances as those alluded to in the Epistle to the Hebrews, v. 4—8. For 
some interesting facts on Constantine's belief, see Gieseler, \ 56. 



The Victory of Constantine. 363 

secuted sect. He had in some way perceived that the power of 
Divine retribution was on their side. Their God was more 
mighty than the gods of the persecutors. This he saw as a sim- 
ple fact; and to that fact as seen in the sphere of political enter- 
prise he readily submitted. Having always believed — to use his 
own expression — " that the best and noblest course of ms Rule 
action is, before anything is undertaken, to provide as °f Actwn - 
far as possible for a secure result, ' ' he watched the almighty 
Hand which was then shaping the world's destiny, and that- 
Hand he followed as the only sufficient pledge of security and 
success. 

Such a faith, sometimes degenerating into a mere fatalism, 
and sometimes rising to the height of a sublime confidence in 
God, is characteristic of all great instruments of polit- intellectual 
ical or social revolutions ; and is consistent with gross Faith. 
ignorance of the Gospel and gross negligence of its precepts. 
Men of this kind are often hard, shrewd, and selfish in all sec- 
ondary matters. But in view of the great ends of their vocation, 
they are unsparing of themselves, enthusiastic and even fanatical, 
seldom descending to the littleness of prudential calculations 
on their own account. Their private character, therefore, is 
always more or less of an enigma. In the case of Constantine, 
his later years were subject to a series of Divine visitations, 
which, so far as we may reverentially look into the secret pur- 
poses of God, seem to have been intended to lead him from a 
political into a personal knowledge of the Truth \ and which, 
we may charitably hope, were not without effect. The Nemesis 
which he dreaded, and which in State affairs he so Trials and 
carefully propitiated, was allowed to enter his own Sorrows - 
house. 13 Dark crimes and darker judgments caused his palace 

*5 See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. xviii. ; Euseb. Vit. Constant, iv. 
60-64. It is instructive to contrast the Life of Constantine by the courtly 
Bishop of Csesarea, with the simple inspired records, transcripts as it were 
from the Book of the recording Angel, of the lives of Solomon and David. 
Eusebius is all eulogy. We feel, nevertheless, that he belittles his hero by his 
fulsome praises. On the other hand, what dignity of character beams through 



364 History of the Church. 

to be haunted with horrors worthy of the old tragic drama j 
and the life, which rose with so stern a beauty upon 
the profligate Roman world, 16 went down amid a 

gloom, in which a late baptism, and perhaps a genuine though 

late repentance, are the only evidence of a hope in keeping with 

the faith so long professed. 

But these are questions which history is incompetent to settle. 

Constantine was simply a great instrument in the hand of God. 
To God he gave the glory, by a firm advocacy of the 

of aNeiv Gospel, if not in the better way of a consistent Chris- 

Age. 

tian life. He stands, therefore, as not merely the in- 
troducer, but in some sort the type, of that new era of Church 
growth, in which, while the root of faith remained, its true 
development was to be mixed, and almost inextricably entan- 
gled, with the weeds and thorns and tares of the elements of 
the world. In him began, in short, the great problem and 
enigma of our modern Christendom, our modern civilization. 

the blotted history of those ancient Hebrew kings ! If Constantine's crimes 
and faults had been as honestly given by Eusebius, we should probably have 
found more to admire in him than we can now find warrant for. There is a 
counterpoise, however, to the extravagant eulogies of Eusebius, in the elegant 
lampoon (entitled history) of the fanatical heathen Zosimus : Histories Nova, 
etc. 

16 Among the virtues conceded to him, chastity is prominent; among his 
vices, cruelty. Considering the fearful profligacy of the times, a man in his 
position could hardly maintain the former of these, without falling more or 
less into the latter. 



BOOK IV. 

♦ 

FROM THE OUTBREAK OF ARIANISM 

TO THE 

DOWNFALL OF HEATHENISM. 

A.D. 319-394. 



ook IV. 



CHAPTER I. 

ARIUS AND HIS DOCTRINE. 

Jt was in the nineteenth year of the fourth century of our era, 
amid the peace which Constantine's victory had given 

^4 new 

to the Church, that a little spark fell among the in- trouble. 
flarnmatory elements of Greek Christianity; and the 
flames of a new controversy, destined to burn on for ages, 
spread almost instantaneously from Alexandria into the rest of 
Egypt, Libya, the Upper Thebes, Palestine, Syria, and the 
provinces of Asia Minor. 1 

The evil, it is said, first broke out in the following manner : 
Alexander, the learned successor of Achillas in the A . , 

' Anus ana 

See of Alexandria, whose election has already been Alexander. 
mentioned, 2 had, on a certain occasion, assembled his clergy 
about him, for mutual edification in some of the deeper mys- 
teries of Christian doctrine. The subject for the day was the 
Majesty and Unity of the Sacred Trinity. On this high theme 
the Bishop enlarged, possibly in a style savoring somewhat of a 
fondness for mystical phraseology, more certainly with a marked 

1 For sources of Church History see Dowling's excellent Introduction to 
the Critical Study of Ecclesiastical History, London, 1838; also, Gieseler's 
Church History, Smith's American edition. The authorities most immedi- 
ately necessary are the Greek Ecclesiastical Historians — Eusebius, Socrates, 
Sozomen, Theodoret, Evagrius, Philostorgius, Theodorus Lector — Grace et 
Latine, in iii. Tomm., Cantabrig., 1720 ; also, the first five of these in English 
(somewhat inaccurately translated), in six volumes, Baxter & Sons, London. 

2 P. 298. 



363 History of the Ch u rch . 

warmth and earnestness of manner : this latter being inspired 
by his knowledge of the fact that erroneous views on the sub- 
ject had already crept in, and were secretly favored by a man, 
the foremost in point of logical ability, and the most influential 
in position, of all the Alexandrine clergy. Arius, the parish 
priest of the church called Baucalis, 3 was manifestly aimed at in 
this discourse. He felt the edge of the allusion. He thought 
he saw in it, moreover, a favorable opportunity to 
avows him- avow himself. The Bishop, in his zealous assertion of 
the oneness of the Father and the Son, seemed to have 
confounded the persons of the Trinity ; and Arius, under cover 
of a righteous indignation against that heresy, might advance 
his own opinions without rebuke. Accordingly he threw off 
his habitual reserve, and uttered his mind to the assembled 
presbyters. 

" If the Father," he reasoned, 4 "verily begat the Son, He 
Arian tnat De S at must have been anterior to Him that was 
Tenets. begotten. Once it must have been, that the Father 
was, and the Son was not. The Father alone is unoriginate ; the 
Son, therefore, must have been originate; He must have had a 
beginning, He must have come into being out of no-being. In 
short, though the first-born of creation, and immeasurably 
exalted as being alone created by the Father, He is not of the 
Father — in the sense of emanation, or issue, or expansion, or 
division of substance — but was brought into existence by the 
Father's will, and is consequently a creature. 1 " 1 

These sentiments were met at first with murmurs of disap- 
probation, but without any attempt at formal dis- 
subjectto cussion. At a later meeting of the clergy, the mat- 
ter was taken up more warmly, and Arius having 
repeated his assertions, some one is said to have asked him, 

3 Sozomen, i. 1 5. 

4 Socrates, History, i. 5 ; Epistles of Alexander. Arius, and Eusebius, in 
Theod. History, i. 4-6 ; Arius's Thalia, in S. Athan. c. Arian. Orat. ii. 9 : 
S. Epiphan. Hares. 69; Gieseler's Ch. Hist. $81, n. 2, Smith's Am. ed. ; 
Newman's Arians of the Fourth Century. 



Arius and his Doctrine. 369 

" Do you mean, then, that the Son is, like Satan, susceptible 
of change?" He answered, '-The Son, being begotten and 
created, there is naught in His nature to prevent His chang- 
ing : but it is ever His will to choose only good." This put 
the heresy in a form which fell with a great shock upon th.e 
Church mind ; so that Arius afterwards saw fit to keep the state- 
ment in the background, 5 and by the majority of his followers 
it was always carefully evaded. 

The same pressure of public opinion compelled him, in like 
manner, to soften other sharp points of his doctrine. cautious 
" The Son is a creature, yet not as one of the creatures : staiements - 
though once He was not, yet He was begotten before all times." 
There was an effort, in other words, to assign to the Son of 
God a nature intermediate between that of the Creator and that 
of the creature : an effort which would never have been made 
had it not been necessary to satisfy, at least in appearance, the 
strong faith in His Deity that everywhere prevailed among 
Christian people. 

The question being once fairly opened, the Catholics were 
not slow in detecting the abuse of logic by which the A . 

Arian tenets were supported. It was a reasoning from Logic. 
analogy ; but, as was rightly urged, it omitted the point of the 
analogy really applicable, in favor of a merely secondary and 
incidental point. That a son is born after his father is a rela- 
tion of time, applicable to man because man is a crea- 
ture of time. Such a relation cannot be applied to dental mis- 
Him who has His dwelling in eternity. But that a tke'Essen- 
son is of his father, begotten in his image, the inher- 
itor of his nature, whatever that nature may be, is an essential 
relation, as proper to heavenly and eternal, as to temporal and 
earthly, existence. When Arius, therefore, contended for the 
relation expressed by the word after, and objected to that which 
the word of implies, he did something more than put forth a 
heresy : he started a new way of thinking, which, if once ad- 
mitted, would endanger every article of the Christian faith. 

S See the Letters of Alexander and Arius, Theod. i. 4, 5. 



3jo History of the Church. 

The same may be said of his more subtle argument, that the 

Son owed His existence to the will of God, and that 
Timeintro- the Father must have been before He willed the Son 
the God- to be. Such an assertion would imply that God had 

a being before He had a will : which, again, is an in- 
troduction into the Godhead of the idea of time — a manifest 
denial of the Divine perfection. 

Arius had better ground to go on, but availed himself of it 

in a cavilling spirit, when he diverted the controversy 
ries in the into attacks upon certain theories current in the Church, 
attacked not sanctioned, indeed, nor yet formally condemned, 

by which theologians had endeavored to bring the 
mystery of the Trinity more neatly within the grasp of philo- 
sophic thought. Such, for example, were the ideas of cmana- 
tion, expansion, issue, division, and the like. 6 Such, again, was 
the distinction between the immanent and the forthgoing Word ; 
or, as otherwise phrased, the Word silent and the Word speaking. 
As mere analogies or illustrations, efforts to compare things 
spiritual with spiritual, such phrases might be used without seri- 
ous harm ; if pressed too literally, however, as they sometimes 
were, they might easily be perverted into dangerous errors. 

6 Many theologians of the first three centuries were open to attack on this 
point; see Book II. ch. 7, §viii. of this History. Gieseler remarks that even 
the Nicene Creed sanctions the theory of emanation — " God of God, Light 
of Light," etc. It is to be borne in mind, however, that in using such anal- 
ogies, the Fathers acknowledged their insufficiency, and guarded their hearers 
against understanding them in any mere physical sense. Inadequate expres- 
sion of the Truth is not heresy : heresy involves both inadequate and contra- 
dictory language. Uncharitableness or captiousness is at its root. For this 
reason S. Athanasius — a model of charity in the true sense of the word — in 
defending particular expressions sanctioned by Church use, deemed it enough 
to show that such expressions were capable of a sound meaning : for if they 
were capable of such a meaning, it were malicious to interpret them other- 
wise. In the same spirit, S. Alexander (in his Epistle, Theod. i. 4) says, 
" Terms .... are not adequate to express the Divinity .... of the Only- 
Begotten Son. They were used by holy men who vainly endeavored to clear 
up the mystery, and who .... informed their hearers that the subject was 
far beyond their poivers" 



Arius and his Doctrine. 37 1 

When Arius, therefore, attacked such expressions, he gained 
the sympathy of some thoughtful and learned men. On the 
other hand, some, in a spirit of blind opposition, looked with 
favor upon everything that he assailed : an error which gave 
rise to almost as many heresies as can be traced to the source of 
Arianism proper. 

There was a further Complication arising from the boldness 
of the arch heretic in appealing to the language of Appeal to 
Holy Writ, and from his artful handling of those texts Hol y Wriu 
which affirm either the Divinity or the Divine attributes of the 
Son of God. 

All language, of course, is capable of a secondary or im- 
proper, as well as of a proper, meaning : it may be 
taken in a higher or in a lower sense. Thus when the and lower 
young man in the Gospel saluted our Lord as "good 
Master," he meant it, no doubt, in the lower sense of the word, 
and could, therefore, apply it to a human teacher ; but it was 
intimated to him that, in its proper sense, and according to the 
fulness of its meaning, the salutation was suitable to none but 
God. The Church acted on this hint in her mode of interpret- 
ing the Scriptures generally. Terms descriptive of 
the nature or person of Christ were taken instinctively S:nse%uid 
in their highest sense ; 7 and when these terms were 
drawn from filial or other human relations, and were applicable 
therefore only by way of analogy, the maxim, u Man like God, 
not God like man," became the principle and guide of inter- 
pretation. Lower relations are images of the higher, not the 
higher of the lower. Earthly things and names are shadows 
and figures : substance and reality must be sought in heaven. 
The Catholics, therefore, acknowledging even men to be "sons" 
or " images" of God, and, therefore, in a lower sense, "gods," 
gave a larger meaning to such words, in proportion as, aban- 

7 The leading thought of this paragraph, which I have given (perhaps) 
too concisely, is fully brought out in Newman's Aria.7is, etc., chap. ii. sec. v. 
Abundant illustration of it can be found in S. Athanasius, AHccen. Defens. 
Oxf. Trans Part i. ; Library of the Fathers. 



3 7 '2 History of the Church. 

doning every corporeal thought, they ascended in the scale of 
being, 8 so that when they came up to "the Son, the Image," 
the} r could be content with nothing short of the most full, most 
exalted, most spiritual idea the terms were capable of. 

Arius introduced a mode of interpretation which entirely set 
Arian at naught this wholesome rule. He made the lower 
cF/nter- application of names and words the measure of the 
fretation. mean i n g f the higher. 9 "If Christ is the Son of 
God, so are angels His sons. If Christ is the power of God, 
even the locusts in one place are called His power. If the 
Father begat the Son, He is said also to have begotten the drops 
of dew." This was to say, in other words, that because the 
names of Christ apply in a secondary sense to things earthly, 
which are images of Him their Creator, therefore they must be 
so applied to things heavenly ; an argument as fallacious as if 
one were to reason that because we sometimes call the sunshine 
simply "the sun," therefore the latter word means only " sun- 
shine," even when we apply it to the solar orb. 

The inevitable result of such corrosive logic was to void the 
itsneces- Scriptures of all value as a positive revelation. It was, 
sary Result. m m f act ^ to cut away the whole ground of faith. For 
"faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." 
But if the very word by which faith in Christ cometh, has no 
primary and proper application to Him, but may equally well 
be interpreted in any grade of its lower sense, then there is no 
sure revelation, no ascertainable truth, and consequensly there 
can be no rational belief. All is reduced to the uncertainty of 
opinion, conjecture, and vague interpretation. 

These remarks seem necessary at this juncture of Church 
History, in order to direct attention to an essential 
feature of that long departure from the line of ortho- 
doxy, which Arius began, but which, under other forms and 
names, continued to vex the Church for ages after. 

8 Niccen. Defens. \ 24. 9 Letter of Alexander, Theod. 

i. 4. The invention of the sophism quoted in the text is attributed to Asterius, 
though all the Arians seem to have used it. See Nicczn. Defens. $ 20. 



Arius and his Doctrine. 373 

It was not, like many of the preceding and accompanying 
heresies, an erroneous theory merely, a foolish and 
vain attempt to explain the great mystery 01 the 1 hree an alien 
in One. It was an introduction into the Church of 
an alien mind : an application to the creeds and Scriptures of a 
logical instrument, which, without affecting the form of either, 
could quietly cut away their substance and meaning. 10 The 
controversy, therefore, was eminently a sifting of the heart and 
mind. Forcing men back from the letter of truth to the spirit, 
it brought home to each bosom the searching question, "What 
think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?" It was this which 
gave to the heresy its Protean facility in changing shapes : it 
was this which enabled it, under innumerable shifts and eva- 
sions, to maintain so long a struggle in the bosom of the 
Church. No strife is so obstinate as that in which the com- 
batants, while seeming to have everything, have in reality 
nothing, in common. 

The person and character of the great heresiarch have come 
down to us in descriptions in which, with some allow- p erson j 
ance for the coloring infused by hostile fancy, it is Arius. 
easy to discern a consistent portrait. Of a tall and gaunt, but 
not ungainly, figure, a face thin and sallow, marked by the lines 
of thought, and an eye which had a peculiar gleam of what 
some considered saintliness, and others fanaticism or even in- 
sanity, he was austere in his habits, and of a disposition nat- 
urally melancholy and self-absorbed. His talk is described as 
sweet, insinuating, and exerting an influence akin to fascination. 
When thoroughly aroused, he spoke as a man under a spell, and 
the spell communicated itself to those who heard him. At 
other times he was cold and shy, and uncommunicative ; as 
ready to dissemble his opinions as, in a different frame of mind, 
he was rash in their avowal. His enemies describe him as 

10 S. Athanasius dwells much on this ; showing that the Arian mind was 
yudaic, captious, evasive. See, e.g., the Ep. in Defence of Nic. Def. (Oxf. 
Trans, ch. i.). The Letter of Eusebius (Socrat. i. 8) is one of the most 
subtle specimens of this kind of evasion. 



374 History of the Church. 

excessively ambitious, inwardly corroded by the greed of pow- 
er. On the contrary, Philostorgius" declares that he 

Opposite 

views of his shrank from publicity and honor; so that he volunta- 
rily gave place to Alexander when the two were com- 
petitors for the Episcopal chair. This latter opinion is counte- 
nanced by the fact that his prominence in controversy was only 
occasional ; while he soon lost the leadership of the heresy that 
bore his name. He gave it birth and form : the fostering care 
of it devolved upon abler and worse men. 

A man of the general character above described may become 
a mystic or a sceptic, or both of these in turn. The 

His Train- . . «• » • * • i • i i i r 

ingat early associations of Anus, at Antioch, in the school ot 
Lucian, and the training he had there received in the 
Aristotelian method of disputation, committed him effectually 
to the line of scepticism. Keen, clever, self-absorbed, unim- 
aginative, and unsympathetic ; incapable of regarding, much 
more of appreciating, any other point of view than his own ; 
he was a hater of all mystery in philosophy and religion : a 
feeling aggravated, perhaps, but not justified, by the decided 
tendency in Egypt towards the opposite extreme. Thus he de- 
nied the eternal generation, on the ground that it was incompre- 
hensible. He did not reflect that the creation of the Son out of 
nothing is just as much of a mystery, and fully as hard for rea- 
son to explain. There was a similar inconsistency in his com- 
plaints against the Catholics for expressing their belief in words 
other than those found in Scripture. 

So far as he had any positive theory of the Trinity, it cor- 
responded to that of the New Platonic school : 12 for which rea- 

11 The work of Philostorgius, the Arian historian, is preserved in a com- 
pendium by Photius ; who introduces each extract with the cautionary phrase, 
" Thus says that liar," or, " that most impious of liars, Philostorgius." 

12 It has been abundantly proved by modern and ancient writers, that the 
New Platonic Trinity, itself a combination of the ideas of three leading 
schools, corresponds to the Arian, not the Catholic, dogma. See De Broglie, 
L^Eglise et V Empire, etc., vol. ii., Eclaircissement A.; Newman's Arians 
of the Fourth Cent. chap, i., sect. iv. ; Cudworth's Intellect. System, Book I. 
chap. iv. \ 36; Brucker, Hist. Philos. torn. ii. de Sect. Eclect. §§li. lii. 



Arius and his Doctrine, 375 

son he was taunted with being a follower of Porphyry, the well 
known philosophic enemy of Christian truth. At a H j sdo „„ a 
time when the Church was absorbing the broken ranks Platonic. 
of the heathen schools, there was infinite danger from this class 
of thinkers. The treasures of Greek learning — "the spoils of the 
Egyptians" — might be used, indeed, to adorn the Tabernacle 
of Truth : but they might with still greater ease be converted 
into "golden calves," the symbols of a heathenism more subtle 
and intellectual, but not less dangerous, than the older and 
grosser forms of creature-worship. 

It was, doubtless, an earnest sense of the danger in this di- 
rection, that gave such intensity to the Catholic feeling against 
Arianism. Externally considered, the heresy differed Iu tendenc 
little from the doctrine commonly received. It ac- heathen. 
knowledged the Scriptures ; it waged no war against the order 
or worship of the Church ; no form of confession was in com- 
mon use which it was not ready to subscribe : in short, it con- 
ceded to the Son of God all the practical adoration which had 
been rendered Him from the beginning. The faithful felt, nev- 
ertheless, that even in this last point, in yielding Divine honors 
to one who was declared to be a creature only, 13 Arius had taken 
a fatal step downward towards polytheism : while his mode of 
arguing and denying, his shallow and one-sided philosophy, 
and, in short, his whole tone and temper of mind, were essen- 
tially heathenish, infidel, and atheistic. Hence the extreme 
bitterness of the controversy that the Arian heresy provoked. 

*3 " For it was fitting that the redemption should take place through none 
other than Him who is the Lord by nature, lest we should name another Lord, 
and fall into the Arian and Greek folly.'''' See Oxf. Trans, of S. Athanas. 
against Arian. pp. 129, 141, 292, 301, 303. 



376 History of the Church. 



CHAPTER II. 

ARIUS, ALEXANDER, AND CONSTANTINE. 

The controversy mentioned in the preceding chapter was 
not followed by any immediate action on the Bishop's part. 

Arius went on unmolested, teaching publicly and in 
c the private the tenets he had avowed; for the diffusion 

of which his position as pastor of the principal church 
in the city, as an authorized preacher, and as the head, it would 
appear, of the catechetical school, gave him every advantage he 
could well desire. His example was soon followed by other 
Sect of teachers, such as Colluthus, Carponas, and Sarmatas : 
Coiiuthus. t | ie nrst f wn0 m, in a fit of indignation at the toler- 
ance extended to "heresy," broke off from communion with 
the Bishop and organized a sect called after their own name. 
The amiable prelate still temporized, in hopes of confin- 
ing the evil within the precincts of the city. He even held 
meetings for the free discussion of the points of difference, 
listening to both sides, 1 it is said, and "applauding sometimes 
the one party and sometimes the other." 

That an end came at length to this impolitic delay was due, 
in all probability, to the counsels of a young man, a member 

of the household of Alexander, known at that time as 
Athana- the Deacon Athanasius. About twenty years old and 

of a slight and puny frame, a mere "mannikin" as 
his enemies 2 at a later day called him, he had already given 
signs of a mental and moral superiority from which great things 
were expected. 

According to a story that comes to us on respectable author- 

1 Sozom. i. 15. 

2 Julian : Epistol. 51. Gregory Nazianzen, however, speaks of him as 
angelical 'in person: Orat. xxi. 9. 



Arius } Alexander, and Constantine. $77 

ity, 3 he was first brought to notice in a singular way. The 
Bishop, one day, saw a group of children on the sea- His early 
shore, imitating, in sport, the rite of Baptism. The Li J' e - 

child Athanasius officiated as Bishop. Alexander was at first 
sight shocked ; but so great was the seriousness and dignity with 
which the young ministrant performed the sacred office, that the 
good-natured prelate could not find in his heart to annul the 
act. He recognized the children as duly baptized, and took 
their young leader into his house to train him for Holy 
Orders. The disciple proved worthy of the confidence of his 
master. Already before the outbreak of the Arian troubles he 
had written with marked ability a Tract against the Gentiles, 
and an Essay on the Doctrine of the Incarnation. But the new 
heresy awakened and consecrated all the energies of his soul. 
He saw in it at once a blasphemy against Christ and a denial 
of the Gospel. He opposed it with the utmost decision; and it 
was owing in the main to his sagacious and energetic counsels 
that the Church of Alexandria took at length a decided stand. 
First, Alexander and the city presbyters, then a provin- 
cial Synod of about one hundred bishops from Egypt condemned, 
and Libya, anathematized Arius and his principal ad- 
herents. Among those condemned were five deacons, six pres- 
byters, and two of episcopal rank, Secundus and Theonas. 

But to cut down a weed after it has seeded, is to give it 
additional facilities for growth. Arius, indeed, withdrew from 
Alexandria, but he left busy agents behind him : women 
of all classes, and especially large numbers of the Sacred w deiy 
Virgins, 4 having attached themselves to him with all the 
ardor of their sex. He had emissaries, in like manner, through- 
out Egypt and Libya. In Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor, the 
ground had been prepared for his doctrine by the heresies of 
the third century; 5 and in the numerous sees held by Collucian- 

3 Socrat. i. 15. The story presents chronological difficulties, which are 
not, however, altogether insuperable: De Broglie, I. i. ch. iii. 
^Epiphanius says 700 Virgins. Hceres. lxix. 1. 
5 Book II. ch. vii., and Book III. ch. v., vi., of this Histoiy. 



$7% History of the Church, 

ists, 6 as the disciples of Lucian were called, there were efficient 

co-workers ready to his hand. Among others, Eusebius, the 

Church historian, the metropolitan of Csesarea, lent a 

Bishops . 

favorable willing ear to his plausible complaints, and wrote in 
his behalf to the Bishop of Alexandria. His cause was 
more earnestly taken up by another Eusebius, the courtly Bishop 
of Nicomedia. In short, Arius could boast, whith some show of 
reason, that "all the prelates of the East, except such illiterate 
men 7 as the Bishops of Antioch, Tripoli, and Jerusalem," were 
more or less favorably disposed towards him. 

Where he could not insinuate his heresy, he took care to 
secure sympathy as a victim of persecution. Alexander en- 
Lettersto deavored to undo the mischief by a circular epistle to 
and fro. hi s colleagues, stating the true grounds of the quarrel. 
But his tardy intervention added fuel to the flame. Innumer- 
able letters passed to and fro, the Bishop himself, it is said, 
having written more than seventy in the course of one month ; 
and wherever these missives fell, they were carefully gathered 
up by the one side or the other, and kept for further use in the 
controversy. 8 As was natural, the Meletians and other sects 
increased the confusion, arraying themselves for the most part 
on the side of Arius. 

What was vastly more mischievous, the controversy soon 
became popular, and wrangling resounded on every side. 9 Shop- 
keepers discussed the mysteries of the creed furiously 
Excite- over their wares. The populace railed at one another 
in the language of theology. Households were divided 
on the question, Whether the Son was before he was begotten ; 
or argued in noisy debates that "Peter and Paul, had they made 

6 Theod. i. 4, 5. 

7 " They will not admit that any of our fellow-ministers possess even 

mediocrity of intelligence the true doctrines, they say, have never 

entered the minds of any but themselves." Alexander's letter, Theod. i. 4. 
This boast of learning, wit, enlightened views, etc., marked the Eusebian or 
Arian party. 

8 Socrat. i. 6. 

^Euseb. Vit. Constant, iii. 4; Socrat. i. 6; Theod. i. 4, 6. 



Arius, Alexander ; and Constantine, 2>79 

sufficient efforts, might have attained a filiation equal to that of 
their Lord." The heathen took part in the general scandal. 
The squabbles of Christians were mimicked in theatres. It was 
a time of rebuke and blasphemy, from the blame of which 
neither of the two parties was altogether free, though the 
infamy of ministering directly to the frivolous temper of the 
crowd seems to attach chiefly to the name of Arius. To make 
his tenets popular, he strung them together in loose verses, after 
the manner of a low comic poet, called Sotades, and Thalia 
entitled the vile production the Thalia — a name com- of Arius. 
monly given to songs sung at feasts. He also wrote hymns, 
which he set to light airs, for millers, for sailors, for travellers 
by land or by water. 

The Emperor Constantine, whose interest in Church affairs 
had steadily increased, notwithstanding the trouble and annoy- 
ance he had experienced from them, first learned of the The Em- 
difficulties in the East during his stay in Nicomedia, ^ZrLl^s 
just after the great victory over his rival, Licinius. A - D - 3 2 3- 
The advantage of a first hearing was on the side of the Arians. 
Eusebius, the crafty prelate of the Eastern capital, had written 
letters, holden councils, and made appeals in all directions, in 
their behalf. Constantia, the Emperor's sister and the widow 
of Licinius, was a devoted follower of Eusebius. Both of these 
had access to the court, and neither of them was likely to leave 
the opportunity unimproved. 

However this may have been, the emperor's emotions on 
hearing of the affair were those of grief as a Christian, of dis- 
appointment and vexation as a statesman. He had 

HtS r VZ€ r lX) 

been sufficiently troubled, he declared, with the scan- of the 

dais and confusion of the Donatist schism in North 
Africa ; and when his efforts had failed to find in the Western 
Church a suitable arbiter of that quarrel, he had confidently 
looked towards the East — the venerable day-spring of religion — 
for an authority which all parties might unanimously respect. 
But now the East itself was in a fever of excitement. And all 
for what ? For a mere question about words, as he understood 



380 History of the Church. 

it ; or, at most, for mysteries too deep for man to scrutinize, and 
which, if looked into at all, ought to be kept within the circle 
of the learned and prudent few. 

Such was the feeling of Constantine, and such the tenor of 

his letter to Arius and Alexander. 10 For in an appeal full of 

earnestness, and showing every mark of good sense ex- 

His Letter . 

on the sub- cept pertinence to the cause at issue, he condescended 
to write to the two himself; putting the blame of the 
quarrel with equal hand on both ; complaining that they had 
robbed him of his sleep and of all joy in life ; and urging them 
for the Church's sake, for the furtherance of unity, for the 
tranquillity of the empire, and finally, out of respect to his own 
peace of mind, to put an end to the scandal, to compromise the 
difference, imitating therein the example of the heathen philo- 
sophic schools ; and, in short, if all could not see alike, yet to 
preserve at least decorum, with the continuance of kindly feeling 
and mutual respect. 

With his letter he sent a special mediator ; in the selection 
of whom he showed a thoughtful impartiality, passing over 
„ . Eusebius and other eminent Eastern prelates in favor 

He sends a * 

Mediator, f a "Western man, a Spaniard, to whom the subtleties 
of the Greek tongue and of Greek controversy were almost as 
unfamiliar as to the emperor himself. 

It was Hosius of Cordova, a favorite of Constantine from 
the time of his conversion; a "sober-minded" man, "widely 
r, . „ known" as such even among those who differed from 

Hostus of ° 

Cordova. h} m m opinion." His dignity of character was adorned 
by great wealth, his wealth was ennobled by boundless liberality. 
A confessor in the great persecution, he had taken part in 

10 This letter was manifestly written under Arian inspiration. Socrat. i. 7, 
Euseb. Vit. Constant, ii. 63—73. 

11 Eusebius and Athanasius alike sound the praises of Hosius : of all the 
prelates at Nicaea he is the only one that Eusebius mentions with commenda- 
tion; of the 400 whom Athanasius counted among his allies Hosius the Great 
is the only one named. Euseb. Vit. Const, ii. 63; iii. 7. S. Athan. Apolog. 
de Fuga, p. 703; ad Solitar. pp. 827, 837, 842, etc. • 



Arius, Alexander, and Constantine. 381 

numerous councils since the beginning of the century, and was 
destined during his long life to have a foremost place in many 
others. He was famous, in short, as Hosius the Great : a title 
which he held till the hundredth year of his life, and which, 
though dimmed by his yielding at last to Arian persecutions, is 
still accorded to him for his eminent services to the cause of 
Truth. 

The result of his mission to Alexandria 12 proved unfavorable 
to the Arian cause. The impetuous Colluthus was brought 
back into the pale of the Church; the Emperor, learn- R esu i to f 
ing from Hosius the true state of things in Egypt and his mission - 
the character and importance of the question at issue, was com- 
mitted, for the time being at least, to the orthodox side. 

The cause of Arius was still further damaged, in the imperial 
mind, by the tumultuous conduct of some of the heretic's fol- 
lowers in Egypt. There was a riot, in which a statue 
of the Emperor was overthrown. With tidings of this and the 
and similar disorders there came also a letter from 
Arius, in which he was indiscreet enough to boast of the 
number and power of his adherents in Libya Constantine was 
exasperated and perhaps alarmed. He refrained, however, from 
any resort to the weapons of state persecution, but condescended 
to chastise the audacious " Porphyrian" by an answer to his 
epistle, 13 more remarkable for its vigor of vituperation than for 
its dignity of style or sound exposition of the faith. 

Thus in less than five years the whole Roman world was on 
fire with a dispute, in which the battle with heathenism 
was about to be fought over within the Church itself; Ordeal, 
and the Truth, which for three centuries had been 
tried in. the furnace of persecution, was to undergo the more 

12 Of what Hosius did in Egypt nothing is known beyond the general 
result: Baronius, therefore, makes up a little history (unsupported by author- 
ities) in which Hosius figures as the Pope's legate, holding a General Council. 

J 3The letter is given in Gelasius Cyzicenus, iii., whose History of the 
Nicene Council can be found in Mansi Concilia, torn, ii., or in Hardouin, 
torn. i. 



382 History of the Church, 

searching ordeal of an intellectual scrutiny, the most rigid and 
most subtle that the rationalistic Greek mind could bring to 
bear upon it. 



CHAPTER III. 

GENERAL COUNCIL OF NICjEA. 

When Constantine, in his letter to Alexander and Arius, gave 
utterance to a wish that the Eastern Church should be 
General called in to settle the great quarrel of the West, he 
had evidently in his mind the germ, at least, of the 
idea of an Ecumenical Synod. Local differences could best be 
adjusted by bringing them face to face with the agreement of 
the Church at large. 1 The Donatist and Meletian schisms, the 
Easter controversy still unsettled, the Novatian heresy, the 
Arian strife : all these were questions in which the whole 
Church was interested. The whole Church, then, should be 
put in a position to pronounce upon them. 

Moved by such considerations, and led, in all probability, 
by the advice of Hosius, the great council-leader of the age, the 
Synod Emperor took measures, marked by his usual breadth 
called. f v i ew? magnificence of plan, and promptness of ex- 
ecution, for the convening of the most remarkable assemblage 
the world at any time had witnessed. 2 

From the remotest corners of the empire, and even from 

1 In his letter on the Council (Theod. i. 10), Constantine distinguishes 
between following reason and following private opinion. By the former he 
means the common sense of the Church; by the latter, the judgment of indi- 
vidual minds. 

2 See the Ch. Historians : Eusebius, De Vit. Constant. ; S. Athanas. de 
Decret. Synod, Nic; Gelasii Cyzicen. Syntagma, etc., contained in Mansi, 
Concilia, torn. ii. ; Kaye, Some Account of the C. of Nic, etc.; De Broglie, 
V Eglise et F Empire R., etc., ii. 2, Eclair cissement B. 



General Council of Niccea. 383 

regions that lay beyond the borders of the Roman world, the 
chief pastors were invited to come together. Public 
carriages were placed at their disposal ; their expenses 
were to be met at the public charge. The Emperor, with the 
vast resources of the empire, was pledged to the success of the 
undertaking. Nicaea, a most ancient and illustrious city, situ- 
ated on one of the bays of the Propontis, not far from the site 
which the imperial eye had already singled out as the golden 
gate of communication between the East and West, was appro- 
priately chosen as the most central and accessible place of 
meeting. 

The Bishops were not slow in obeying the imperial summons. 
More than three hundred, known in later times as the mystical 
Three Hundred and Eighteen, 3 are said to have assem- Th 

bled, each with an attendant crowd of presbyters, dea- cccxviii. 
cons, and other followers. The greater part came from the 
Eastern Church. The West was represented by Vitus and Vin- 
centius, presbyter-legates of the aged Sylvester of Rome ; and 
by Hosius of Cordova, Csecilianus of Carthage, with others 
from the chief cities of Italy, Spain, Sicily, and Gaul. Two 
Barbarians were present, Theophilus, a Goth, and John, a 
Persian. 

With the exception of quite a small circle of learned pre- 
lates, chiefly of the schools of Origen and Lucian, the clergy 
seem to have been mostly of that simple type which Tktir 

ages of persecution had rendered popular. Scars and character. 
mutilations were held in higher honor among them than the skill 
of the orator or dialectician. 

There was Paphnutius, the scarred and halting veteran of 

3 The count varies from 250 to 350. Of course, in a body more than two 
months in session, the numbers present might vary from day to day. The 
number 318 was fixed on from a mystical allusion to the servants who fol- 
lowed Abraham in his pursuit of the robber kings : Hilar. De Synod. 86 ; 
Letter of Liberius in Socrat. iv. 12. In Greek numerals, 318 is expressed by 
the letters TIH, which may be interpreted "the Cross of Jesus." Hence the 
Synod was called by the Greeks, the Council of the TIH. 



384 History of the Church. 

the Upper Thebais : the empty socket of whose eye, extin- 
Paphnu- g^ishecl in the great persecution, Constantine de- 
tius. lighted to kiss. He is still more honorably known as 

the blameless celibate, who, eschewing marriage himself, de- 
feated an attempt made in the Council to separate the clergy 
from the society of their wives. 4 

There was Spyridion of Cyprus, a shepherd of souls, a 
worker of miracles, a father of a family, and a keeper of sheep: 
a man of boundless benevolence, moreover, and a 
hearty though kindly reprover of all forms of hypoc- 
risy and affectation. A drop of his quaint humor fell once 
upon an eloquent but fastidious bishop, who had thought to im- 
storustoid P rove tne style of Scripture by reading "Take up thy 
0/ him. couch" instead of the homelier phrase, "Take up thy 
bed." On another occasion, certain robbers attempted his fold 
by night, but were miraculously entrapped and remained there 
in durance until the morning. "It is a pity," said the saint, 
when he discovered them, " that you should watch all night for 
nothing : " so he gave them a ram from his flock, and let them 
go. At another time, during a strict fast, when a guest declined 
to partake of pork on the plea that he was a Christian, Spyrid- 
ion answered, " For that very reason you are bound to eat what 
is set before you." 

Such instances may serve to show that a reputation for saint- 
liness could be acquired in that age, without going into the ex- 
tremes of the ascetic spirit. But there were many 

A nt '- 

encratite representatives, in the Council, of a sterner side of the 

religion of the day. James of Nisibis came clothed, 

like the Baptist, in camel's hair. Potamon, Bishop of Heraclea 

4 This story (resting on the authority of Socrates) is impugned by De 
Broglie and others, chiefly on the ground of its alleged inconsistency with the 
Third Canon of Nicsea, wherein all women are forbidden the houses of the 
clergy, except " a mother, sister, aunt, or such persons as are beyond suspi- 
cion.'''' But this last exception confirms the story. It looks as if the Council 
would neither exclude lawful wives, nor yet include them ; which is just what 
Paphnutius seems to have contended for. 



General Council of Niccea. 335 

on the Nile, was revered as a sympathizing eye-witness and an 
eloquent expositor of the wonderful life of S. Antony. 

It is related by the historians Socrates and Sozomen, and is 
not inconsistent with the general character of Constantine's 
policy, that Acesius, a Novatian Bishop, was also sum- Acesiusihe 
moned to the Council and assented to its proceedings. Novatian. 
He remained stiff in his notions, however, with regard to the 
exercise of the power of absolution. The Emperor had the 
patience to argue with his scruples, but was at length forced to 
dismiss him with the quiet remark, "Take a ladder, Acesius, 
and climb up to heaven by yourself." 

Of the intellectual leaders, Alexander, by his position and 
learning, and the deacon Athanasius, by his logical 

, ... , , ™, , Alexander. 

ability and tact, were decidedly foremost. 1 he latter 
especially showed a wonderful combination of talents suited to 
the times. A faultless ascetic, hardly falling short of the rigor 
of the anchorites, he was yet thoroughly alive to every Atkana- 
movement of the world around him. Keen, subtle, slus - 

rapid in the action of his mind, he could seize instantaneously 
the real merits of a question in dispute, and with so firm a 
grasp that, while he declined no argument and shrunk from no 
excursion to which he might be challenged by an active and 
evasive foe, he could never be diverted for a moment from his 
principal object. He looked at the meaning of an adversary 
rather than at his words. , What was still more rare, he laid 
little stress upon the technical phrases of theology, was indiffer- 
ent to theories, and could not be beguiled into the defence of 
untenable positions. In this respect, Marcellus of 
Ancyra, his principal ally, and a powerful though 
eccentric champion, proved sadly deficient. With courage and 
skill in abundance, he lacked common-sense. On the Arian 
side, Eusebius of Nicomedia had most of that art r ,. , 

' Kuseoius of 

which holds to the letter of truth, but denies its Nicomedia. 
spirit. Like Athanasius, he had a keen eye for the pith of a 
controversy, and could, therefore, afford to make verbal con- 
cessions. He felt the importance of the word " consubstan- 



$86 History of the Church. 

tial," as applied to the nature of the Son of God ; and his sen- 
sitiveness in relation to that word led the orthodox to see more 
clearly where their own strength lay. 

In addition to the great body of clergy, innumerable laymen 
were attracted to Nicsea by the double motive of interest in the 
Laymen at subject of dispute and a desire to see Constantine, the 
Nica>a. hero of so many victories, amid scenes in which his 
extraordinary qualities were likely to shine forth with an added 
lustre. From similar motives, many eminent heathen were 
present ; rhetoricians, sophists, and philosophers of 

Heathen. 

the various schools. It was sport to these to entrap 
the Christian leaders into subtle disputations. But the fondness 
of the clergy for contests of that kind was effectually rebuked 
by a worthy Confessor, who reminded them that " Christ and 
His Apostles did not teach us the dialectic art, but singleness 
of mind preserved by faith with good works. ' ' It was probably 
the same sturdy champion who is said, by his plain announce- 
ment of the gracious truths of the Gospel, to have 
pher con- vanquished a philosopher, a Goliath of the heathen 
schools, upon whom other arguments had been tried 
in vain. " Dismiss thy subtleties — ask not the why and the 
wherefore — but answer me simply : dost thou believe ? ' ' The 
philosopher, moved, as he declared, by an unaccountable im- 
pulse, confessed himself a believer. 

Such stories, of course, coming down to us among the debris 
of Nicene times, are of no great value as matters of fact ; but 
serving, as they do, to show the impression left upon 
men's minds by the signal event of that period, they 
cannot be omitted without loss to the cause of truth. They be- 
long to the spirit of history, if not to its letter. 

No original record remains of the order of business in the 
Council, or of the particulars of its proceedings. As was natu- 
Order of ra ^ * n sucn an assemblage, many came there with 
business. budgets of private grievances or ambitious projects, 
which Constantine disposed of in the magnificently summary 
fashion of Oriental justice. He appointed a day when such 



General Council of Niccea. 387 

matters were to be brought before him in writing. 5 When the 
set time came, he received the memorials : reminded r •„„.„„„ 
the parties that as Christians and priests they ought disposed of. 
not to make themselves amenable to human tribunals; exhorted 
them as "gods" to await with patience the righteous judgment 
of God ; and finally, having urged them to dismiss all thoughts 
alien to the sacred business before them, he committed the doc- 
uments of mutual crimination to the flames. He added, it is 
said, a well-meant but dangerous remark, that if he were to 
catch a Bishop in the act of adultery, he would rather veil the 
crime than scandalize the Church by an exposure of it. These 
matters being thus disposed of, another day was set for the 
formal action of the Bishops on the questions for which they 
were assembled. 

The time intervening was given to conferences of various 
kinds. Arius was more than once summoned, and con/er- 
stated his opinions. The first hearing showed that ences - 

from that large body, consisting of the bulk of the clergy who 
held the Faith as a simple tradition handed down to them from 
the beginning, the heresiarch could expect no favor. 6 His doc- 
trine was a novelty, and that was enough to condemn A . 
it. "We have neither learned it nor taught it," was rejected 
the general cry. Some even went so far as to stop their ears in 
holy horror. There were others, however, who "contended 
that former opinions ought not to be retained without examina- 
tion." Upon these fell the burden of the debate that fol- 
lowed ; which, it would appear, was not merely a 
discussion in solemn conclave, but a general contro- and 
versy in public and private throughout the city : the 
clergy, the laity, and even heathen philosophers, warmly partici- 
pating in it. Tiiere was abundant opportunity thus afforded for 
honest inquiry : an ample field for the display of dialectic skill. 

5 The order of events is discussed by Tillemont, Council of Nicaa, note 
ii. I have followed, in the main, Sozomen. 

6 The writings of S. Athanasius are full of testimonies to this effect : 
e. g., Epistol. Nicen. Defens. 25, 26, chap. vi. of Oxf. trans. 



388 History of the Church. 

"Many of the Bishops," we are told, "and many of the infe- 
rior clergy, attracted the notice of the Emperor and court by 
these disputations. Athanasius, the Alexandrine deacon, par- 
ticularly distinguished himself." 

Eusebius of Csesarea 7 claims the honor of having been the 

first to suggest, with a view to conciliation, that there was a 

sufficient basis of agreement in the current language 

Consub- of the Creeds. He brought in, therefore, a confession 

stantial. . 1 -1 • 1 1 

quite orthodox in terms, but, as the Anan faction 
showed by their "winks and nods," easily capable of perver- 
sion to a heretical meaning. As the object of the Council was 
to determine the sense of the Creed, such a confession was 
deemed insufficient. Constantine — so at least we are informed 
on the authority of the same Eusebius — proposed to amend it 
by the insertion of the term homoousion or " consubstantial." 
Be otten Also, as tQe Arians interpreted the word "begotten" 
not made. t0 mean the same as "created," the distinction "be- 
gotten, ;2<?/made," was introduced. These events occurred, it 
is probable, at the closing session of the Council, when Con- 
stantine was present in person. But it is equally probable that 
there had been a lively discussion of the term ho?noousion be- 
fore that time, and that Constantine' s suggestion of it was 
merely a carrying out of what he knew to be the mind of the 
great majority of the Bishops. 

However this may have been, the word was not finally 
adopted without a most rigid and searching scrutiny. It was a 
Ob 'ections P nrase n °t contained in Scripture ; to which objection it 
answered. was answered, that the sense, not the letter, of Scrip- 
ture, was what they were called to determine. It had been re- 
jected, or at least not adopted, by the great Council at Antioch. 
To this it was replied, in substance, that the Antiochean fathers 
had either misapprehended the meaning of the word, being en- 
tangled in the sophistry of Paul, or had feared misapprehension 
on the part of others. Since that period, time, which solves all 

7 Theod. i. 12, 



General Council of Niece a. 389 

questions, had made its meaning more clear. Finally, it was 
objected that the word countenanced Sabellianism, Tritheism, or 
other heresies. "Whatever is of one substance with anything, 
comes from it either by emission, as a branch from the root ; or 
by efflux, as a child from its parent ; or by division, as a bar cut 
in three pieces." To all which there was the obvious reply that, 
however true this might be of physical substances, yet spiritual 
the Divine essence being in its very nature simple, spiritually 
indivisible, and incomprehensible, we can only affirm dtscerncd - 
of it that It is what It is : the question ' ' how or what It is " lies 
beyond the limit of human investigation. The term "one in 
essence," therefore, merely emphasized a fact : it could not be 
made to enunciate a theory. It forcibly reaffirmed what had 
all along been affirmed, that "the Son is of the Father"; or, 
that "what the Father is, the same is the Son" : but to the 
philosophic question, "how He is of the Father," whether by 
"emission, emanation, expansion, or division," it gave no an- 
swer whatever. Moreover, there were other expressions in the 
Creed which would guard it sufficiently against a Sabellian gloss. 
All this was made so clear by the advocates of the term, that even 
Eusebius was content, after a while, to forego his opposition. 8 

In the debates on this subject, Athanasius took a leading 
part on the Catholic side ; also, Marcellus of Ancyra, and 
Asclepas of Gaza. Hosius, it is said, drew up the L eac n n 
Creed in the form which was finally adopted. Their debaters. 
principal opponents were the two Eusebiuses, with Theognis of 
Nicsea, and Maris of Chalcedon. About seventeen in all, either 
from sympathy with Arius, or from a real scruple against the 
introduction of a term not sanctioned hitherto by common use, 
clung to the less definite confession advocated by secundus 
Eusebius. Fifteen of these finally subscribed to the ~, and 

J 1 fieonas 

Iwmcousion. Secundus and Theonas held out to the banished. 
last, and, with Arius and two of his friends, Pistus and Euzoius, 
were sent into exile in Illyria. 

8 Socrates, i. & 



39° History of the Church. 

The Paschal question was much more easily settled. Hatred 

of the Jews and of everything Judaic 9 had become so general, 

that the Ouartodecimans readily consented to clear 

The ^- J 

Paschal themselves of the taint of a seeming sympathy with 
them. Easter, it was agreed, should be everywhere 
observed on the Sunday after the full moon following the 21st 
of March ; and that there might be no miscalculation, the 
Qther Bishop of Alexandria was empowered to ascertain the 

errors. ^ay each year, and to announce it in a Paschal Epistle. 
The error of the Cathari or Novatians was treated mildly: their 
baptism and their orders were to be esteemed valid, a full 
renunciation of their heresy restoring them to the privileges of 
the faithful. To prevent confusion, however, their clergy were 
to be subject to those of the Church, except in places where 
they should be in sole possession of the ground. The Meletian 
Bishops were allowed, in like manner, to continue in the min- 
istry ; but Meletius was not to exercise the power of ordination. 
The Paulianists were to be baptized, when converted to the 
Church. 

The schism of Meletius being a revolt from the jurisdiction 

of the See of Alexandria, it was necessary for the Council to 

say something on the rights of Metropolitans. The 

Rights of , ...,.- 

Metrophn- decree on that subject begins with the brief sentence : 
"Let the ancient customs prevail": to which is 
added, however, a series of particular applications of the prin- 
ciple, taken down (probably) just as they were uttered, with little 
effort to frame them into a symmetrical whole. 10 Alexandria, 

9 This feeling is most bitterly expressed in Constantine's letter. Theod. 
i. 10. 

10 Thus some one may have proposed, " Let the ancient customs be 
observed which give the Bishop of Alexandria an authority over Egypt," etc. 
Then, some one else may have suggested, " Since a similar custom prevails also 
with the Bishop of Rome." Then others may have suggested, in like man- 
ner, the custom in Antioch, etc., etc. In other words, the custom of Rome 
(being beyond all question) was cited as a precedent to confirm the rights of 
those Churches about which a question had been raised. Interpreted in this 
way, Can. VI. needs none of the new readings or amendments that scholars 
from time to time propose. 



General Council of Niece a. 391 

Rome, Antioch, Csesarea, and the heads of other provinces, should 
retain the privileges which custom had established. Jerusalem, 
out of regard to her pristine glory, was allowed to hold to her 
traditionary titles, but so as not to interfere with the more 
recent but more actual authority of the Metropolitan of Csesarea. 
In short, the metropolitan principle was sanctioned in the form 
which usage had established." No Bishop should be ordained 
without the consent of the Metropolitan, or without other 

the vote of a majority of the Provincial Synod. Canons. 
Three prelates, at least, should assist at ordinations. Transla- 
tions or removals, on the part of the clergy, were rigorously 
forbidden. Canons were framed against bodily mutilations, 
against the subintroductce, against the admission of novices to 
Holy Orders, against excessive rigor or excessive leniency 
toward the lapsed, and against usury and the "love of filthy 
lucre" on the part of the clergy. A check was given to the 
growing usurpations of deacons. On the Lord's Day all 
Christians were to pray standing. Synods were to be holden 
twice a year — one immediately before Lent, " that all jealousies 
and strifes might be settled," and one in the autumn. 

On the day appointed by Constantine for the final session 
of the Council, being probably the fifth of July, the Bishops all 
assembled in the great hall of the chief palace of ciosin* 
Nicaea; and seated in opposite rows, with a wide open Session. 
space between, awaited the promised presence of the Emperor. 
He entered, preceded by a retinue consisting solely of Christian 
friends and members of his household. Tall of stature, majestic 
in his person, radiant in purple and gold and precious stones, 
fully conscious of the dignity of the occasion — as was shown in 
his downcast eyes, in the blush on his countenance, and in the 
modestv of his gait — the great prince appeared in the 

The 

eyes of his reverential subjects, "little less than an Emperor 

Angel of God " : an impression enhanced by the 

proud humility with which he waited for a signal from the 

IT Mos antiquus — antiqui mores— ~antiqtia consuetude : which means, 
simply, established custom, not divine or apostolic institution. 



39 2 History of the Church. 

Bishops before he seated himself on the "low chair of wrought 
gold" at the upper end of the hall. A prelate, who stood at 
the head of the right wing of the assembly, 12 addressed to him 
a few words of thanks and congratulation. He replied in 
modest terms, declaring his sense of the momentous interests at 
stake, and exhorting to unity and peace and mutual forbearance. 

The order of the day then proceeded, to wit, the final 
judgment of the Council upon matters previously discussed and 
Final virtually settled. The Emperor labored hard with the 
Action. f ew w ] 10 were disposed to dissent from the faith of the 
majority. Some of these he gained over by argument and 
persuasion. Others yielded only to the fear of exile. As 
before intimated, only two had the honesty to adhere to their 
real convictions. The decrees of the Synod were reduced to 
writing, and signed by the members severally in order. 13 

Before the prelates separated the Emperor entertained them, 
and at the same time celebrated his vice/malia — the twentieth 
Ban uet in anniversary of his reign — by a sumptuous banquet. 14 
the palace, j^ was a sce ne " less like reality than a dream," in the 
eyes of guests unaccustomed to such splendors ; not an earthly 
feast, but " a vision of Christ's kingdom." Eusebius, the his- 

12 Probably Eustathius, Alexander, or Hosius of Cordova. Who pre- 
sided in the Council is uncertain. It would seem, however, that the honor fell 
sometimes to one and sometimes to another of the principal Bishops: though 
the presiding officer (in the modern sense) was the Emperor himself. In the 
later Councils, officers of the Empire (Judices) acted as moderators, without a 
vote. 

J 3 As the name of Hosius appears first, it has been claimed that he had 
that honor as representing the Roman See. Neither Eusebius nor the later 
historians say anything of the sort ; and in all early copies of the list of 
signers, Hosius appears simply as " Osius Episcop. civitat. Cordub. Provinciae 
Hispan.," without any allusion to Rome. But Vitus and Vinceniius, whose 
names come next, are declared to sign " pro venerabili viro papa . . . Syl- 
vestro," etc, The honor accorded to Hosius is sufficiently accounted for by 
his great prominence in preceding Councils, his " widespread fame," his 
favor with Constantine, etc. Euseb. Vit. Constant, iii. 7. 

T -*Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 15, 16. 



General Council of Niece a. 393 

torian, had the honor of delivering a grand panegyric on the 
happy occasion : an effort that must have proved somewhat 
tedious to the Emperor, if we may judge from the zest with 
which, in his answer, the latter exhorted the clergy to eschew 
long discourses. " Few people like them," he urged; L ong 

"fewer still have a liking for the truth. Men are Discourses - 
much sooner won by relieving their necessities or by taking 
their part ; and there are some with whom presents go far, or 
even little courtesies and kindnesses, towards gaining their good 
will." In all this — except in the matter of long speeches, to- 
wards which Constantine had a decided weakness — the practice 
of the great prince accorded with his precepts. He loaded the 
Bishops with presents, and was by no means sparing of kisses 
and caresses. " I, too, am a Bishop," he declared. " You are 
Bishops of the inside of the Church, I of the outside." That 
this view of his position was something more than a jest, he 
showed clearly enough afterwards, by the vigorous course that 
he pursued towards dissenters ; 15 banishing some, frowning 
upon others, and writing numerous epistles, in which his cold 
worldly wisdom was curiously mixed up with theological heat 
and bitterness. 16 The Council, in fact, had proved a great 
success, and Constantine was not a little intoxicated with the 
glory of it. 

The Bishops, on their part, took care that authentic copies 
of their proceedings should be sent to Alexandria, and the other 
principal sees. 17 

Of these the Synodal Epistle, addressed to " the beloved 
brethren in Egypt," is the only one extant. 

x 5Euseb. Vit. C. iii. 17. 

16 See Epistle of Constantine in Theod. i. IO. 

x 7 The Creed is given in the Letter of Eusebius to the brethren in Ccesarea, 
Theod. i. 12; also in an Epistle of S. Athanas. to Jovian, etc., etc. See 
Hammond, Definitions of Faith and Canons of Discipline. Among the 
spurious documents there is a correspondence between Hosius and Sylvester, 
in which the former asks, and the latter graciously accords, the papal sanction 
to the acts of the Council. See Mansi, Concilia, torn. ii. pp. 719-722. 

17* 



394 History of the Church. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONSTANTINE AND S. HELENA. 

From the field of his theological triumph the Emperor 1 repaired 
by slow stages to Rome, with a view to the second 

A D *** 20 

celebration of his Vicennalia. 
But the "place of the old Romans" was not at all congenial 
to that Oriental pomp, that dazzling and unapproachable self- 
isolation, which Constantine, in imitation of his pre- 
feeiinxin decessor Diocletian, had begun of late years to affect. 
It was even less favorable to the display of an extra- 
ordinary zeal for Christianity. The city still remained repub- 
lican in temper, and more than half heathen. It clung with 
passionate pride to the glories of the past : glories to which 
Constantine, by his neglect of the old seat of empire, and by 
his manifest partiality for Oriental manners, seemed to be 
strangely indifferent. 

A cold welcome, therefore, awaited the Master of the World 

in the great metropolis. The patricians sulked \ the people, 

true children of Remus, were, as usual, insolent and 

The 

Emperor's satirical, liking nothing better than the chance of a 

reception. n . , . „ , , 

fling at their superiors. Altogether, his reception was 
quite a contrast to that which, fourteen years before, had been 
accorded to the conqueror of Maxentius. But he bore it with a 
semblance of equanimity. "Strange I did not feel it ! " was 
his quiet remark, when told that one of his statues had been 
pelted by the mob. He consoled himself, however, with an occa 
sional sarcasm, in his turn, at the mock-military airs of the 

1 Zosim. Hist. Nov. ii. ; Amrnian. Marcell. xvi. ; Aurelius Victor Zoname, 
Annul, torn. iii. ; Euseb. De Vit. Constant. 



Constantine and S. Helena. 395 

Roman knights ; and in other ways his resentment, though in 
the main carefully concealed, showed that it only awaited a fit 
occasion to break forth. 

That occasion came suddenly, darkly, and calamitously, in 
one of those fearful domestic tragedies which the classic reserve 
of the old drama submitted to the ears rather than to Domestic 
the eyes of the spectator : which came to the outer Tragedy. 
world only in dread outcries from within, or in broken whispers 
and unsatisfying rumors. 

Out of the cloud of mystery in which Constantine took pains 
to envelop this passage of his life, we may gather, with some 
approach to certainty, 2 that Fausta, his second wife, Cris p usatld 
had long felt a growing solicitudefor the future of Fausta. 
her own children, and a proportionate jealousy of Crispus, the 
Emperor's son by a former marriage, the idol of the army and 
people, and until quite recently the idol of his father. Hence 
whispers, intrigues, and parties in the palace. Helena, the 
strong-minded mother of the Emperor, was partial to the ami- 
able and gifted Crispus. The brothers of Constantine, sons of 
Constantius Chlorus by his second marriage, naturally 

tii« r -r-> -it • -i i Intrigues 

inclined to the views of Fausta, and perhaps stimulated and 

R Z€ J7ZO fS 

her maternal fears. Rumor insinuated another and 
darker reason for the imperial stepmother's hatred. It was the 
old story of Phaedra and Hippolytus, of Joseph and Potiphar's 
wife. The result of it all was that the heroic youth, whose 
military prowess was enough in itself to make him an object of 
suspicion, was seized by the order of his jealous father ; was 
banished, after a brief and secret examination, to Pola, a small 
town on the coast of Istria ; and there, it is said, was Death of 
made away with in secret. A similar fate befel the Crispus. 
sole surviving son of Licinius and Constantia, a child about 
twelve years of age. 

Helena was absent in the East when all this happened. She 

2 De Broglie, H. de I'Eglise, etc., skilfully brings together the scattered 
notices of this transaction. 



39 6 History of the Church. 

hastened to the court. But her reproaches and lamentations 
could not bring the dead to life again ; they only added other 
names to the list of victims. The sword now raged among 
Death of tne Emperor's advisers. The days of Nero seemed to 
Fausta. have returned. Fausta disappeared as mysteriously 
as had her noble stepson, smothered in a hot bath, it was 
reported, by order of her deeply-offended and inexorable 
husband. 

By these fearful tragedies, two great souls — the Emperor and 
his religious but high-minded mother — were plunged into an 
The abyss of grief, not unmingled with remorse, 3 from which 

ond'kiV the only practicable escape was in a life of earnest 
Mother. repentance and supernatural devotion, or at least of 
indefatigable activity in public works. 

The Emperor found a field for his stimulated energies on the 
banks of the Propontis, the well-known site of the venerable old 
town of Byzantium. There, in fruitful imagination, and by an 
Building- of instinct well-nigh prophetic, he had already planted a 
ew ome. f uture metropolis of the world. The gigantic enterprise 
was now undertaken in earnest. In a few years there arose, as if 
under the stroke of a magician's wand, a second Rome, more 
magnificent, if not more solid, than the first : a city sacred to 
Christianity from its foundation-stone, yet adorned with the rich 
spoils of heathen culture, and destined to be the home, the 
repository, the ark, of all that was worth preserving and trans- 
a antic fitting from the antique civilization. The sagacity 
Effort. t ] iat pi ann ed such a work, in such a time and place, is 
only equalled by the reckless resolution and iron strength of 
will which carried it on so rapidly to a successful achievement. 
We may well credit the heathen historian's complaint, 4 that the 

3 The wild stories told by Zosimus and Zonaras — that Constantine resorted 
to the heathen priesthood for lustrations, etc. — probably belong to this period, 
and are not altogether improbable, though they are too confused and contra- 
dictory to be taken to the letter. Zos. ii. ; Zon. iii. 

4 Zosim. lib. ii. So also St. Jerome : Constantinopolis dedicatur pene 
omnium urbium nuditate. Hieron. Chron. p. 181. 



Constantine and S. Helena. 39 7 

empire staggered under the burden, that towns were depopu- 
lated, and that curses not a few followed the hot haste of the 
spendthrift builder of cities. 

But this, after all, was only part of a great system of self- 
imposed toil. The restless energy of Constantine could be 
content with nothing less than a total reconstruction Grand 
of the empire. Hitherto the armies of Rome had been Schemes. 
stationed on the frontiers, in forts or in fortified camps — a per- 
petual menace to the nations that lay beyond. Constan- 

• r i The A rmy. 

tine withdrew the greater part of the force into the 
towns and cities of the interior. 5 They would thus be more 
immediately under the control of the government, while they 
served at the same time to overawe an unruly population, and to 
strengthen the State from within. The Barbarians, meanwhile, 
might be subdued by Christianity more effectually than by force 
of arms. Invasion might be converted into much-needed im- 
migration. Constantine, in fact, had outgrown that classic 
narrowness of mind which regarded all foreigners as Barbarians 
and all Barbarians as foes. 6 When he conquered the Goths he 
placed them at once upon the footing of favored allies. With 
the Sarmatians, in like manner, he peopled the waste p 

places of Italy, Scythia, and Macedonia. To the in- Policy. 
habitants of the Chersonesus he gave free trade. And it has 
been well observed, that his negotiations with the King of 
Persia, in behalf of the Christian subjects of the latter prince, are 
the earliest example of that enlightened Christian diplomacy by 
which nations in modern times are bound together. 

The same general policy of strengthening the State from 
within, led to a remodelling of the government on the most 
extensive scale. Four prefectures were established. Attem p tsai 
New offices were created, with a nice graduation of Reform. 
costly dignities adorned with all the pomp of Oriental titles. 

5 For this he is much censured by Zosimus and others, but ably defended 1 
by De Broglie. 

6 Euseb. De Vit. Con. iv. 5-14. 



398 History of the Church. 

In this there was a show of reform but little of the reality. It 
was a gilding, not a healing, of what had become an incurable 
decay. It was a sort of apotheosis of defunct power, a gorgeous 
exaggeration of the pride of place, which corrupted language 
and contributed not a little to the corruption of morals and 
religion. When princes came to be addressed as "all-mighty 
and all-worshipful," saints could hardly be invoked as less than 
"all-holy and all-pure." Hence a turgid unreality of language 
and of thought, 7 which flowed beyond the bounds of political 
life, and crept into the order, the worship, and even the doctrine 
of the Church. 

The Church, in fact, had to take the evil with the good of 
imperial protection. The clergy were honored and enriched \ 
church and m a g m fi cen t edifices were erected; titles, privileges, and 
state. exemptions were conferred with a lavish hand. It was 

a shower of golden sunshine coming from a quarter which had 
hitherto been black with the storms of persecution. We need 
not wonder that there were some to whom it seemed the fulfil- 
ment of the reign of Christ, 8 and who, with little thought for 
the future, bartered the freedom of the Church for outward 
magnificence and gilded chains. 

On the whole, while in Constantine's policy we may dis- 
cover many signs of a wonderful forecast, yet there was also 
not a little of the precipitancy of a splendid fancy: 
Constan- perhaps the eagerness of a mind ill at ease with itself 
and happy only in the turmoil of ceaseless occupation. 
There was prodigality without restraint, luxury without repose : 
leading to burdens and taxations ruinous to the mass of the 

7 Saint-worship, image -worship, and the rhetorical extravagances intro- 
duced into the liturgies, etc., may be partly accounted for and partly excused 
by the enormities of civil worship, which date from Diocletian and Constan- 
tine. What would seem to us adulation appeared to the Greeks of the 
empire little more than ordinary respect. 

8 Speaking, e.g., of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Eusebius says : " It 
may be that this was that second and new Jerusalem," etc. Vit. Constant. 
Hi- 33- 



Constantine and S. Helena. 399 

people. 9 To make matters worse, the Emperor fell into the com- 
mon error of pluming himself on qualities which he least pos- 
sessed : he coveted the fame of a theologian, doted on rhetoric, 
and burdened his memory with a crude mass of multifarious 
learning. 10 All this had the effect of surrounding him with flat- 
terers, under the name of divines, while adulation 11 flourished 
under the venerable garb of religion. 

In the meantime the Emperor's mother, with a spirit more 
devout than her son's, but not less eager, had sought a balm for 
her wounds, partly in a progress through the Eastern 

, , . . , . XT . Pilgrimage 

provinces, and partly in tracing the footprints 01 Him 0/ 

who bore the world's sorrows, through all the sacred 
haunts of the Holy Land. Wherever she went, her munificence 
was crowned by that of her son. Churches were erected, with 
lavish expenditure, in Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives. 
At Mamre, idolatry was swept away, and a house consecrated for 
Christian worship. Innumerable other shrines, already in exist- 
ence, were elaborately adorned with princely offerings. Her Good 
Alms for the poor, largesses for the soldiery, redemption- Works. 
money for captives, deliverance for the oppressed, decrees of 
amnesty for exiles, grants of privileges or exemptions for strait- 
ened communities, made the progress of S. Helena a charitable 
ovation, and caused her name to be remembered in the East as 
the synonym of all womanly and queenly virtues. 

It had long been the intention of the Emperor, moved as he 
alleged by a divine suggestion, to take measures for the recovery 
of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of which had been pre- The Hoi 
served by local tradition, 12 though hidden from view Sepulchre. 
and purposely desecrated by a temple of Venus, built upon the 
spot in the reign of Hadrian. 

9 He was more generous than just. Euseb. Vit. C. iv. 1-4. 

10 See the "Oration to the Assembly of the Saints," in which Eusebius 
probably had a hand. Ap. Vit. Con. 

"Which, towards the end of his life, Constantine rebuked. Euseb. Vit. 
-Con. iv. 48. 

"Williams's Holy City, etc. 



4-00 History of the Church. 

How far the pilgrimage of S. Helena was connected with 
this object the narrative of Eusebius leaves uncertain. It is not 
its recov- improbable that the first steps were taken under her 
er y- eye. The temple of Venus was demolished. The arti- 

ficial mound on which it had been built was carefully removed, 
and the earth carried away to a distance. The "holy cave" 
appeared, as if by a miracle, "a faithful similitude of His return 
to life" who saw no corruption. It was added, in later times, 
that three crosses were found, the middle one distinguished by 
the well-known title. 13 The news was conveyed in glowing 
terms to Constantine. Furnished by him with ample means and 
particular instructions, 14 Macarius, the Bishop of Jerusalem, 
assisted by the governors of the eastern provinces, hastened to 
adorn the sacred spot with " a House of Prayer worthy of the 
worship of God." The temple thus erected as "a Monument 
of the Saviour's Resurrection," 15 is amply described by Eusebius. 
It was not finished, however, till about ten years after its com- 
mencement. 

Helena, in the. meantime, had departed to her rest, in the 
eightieth year of her age. Originally an inn-keeper's daughter 

x 3The silence of Eusebius as to the discovery of the Cross is dismissed 
quite cavalierly by De Broglie as a bizarrerie. But the same "bizarrerie" 
occurs in Constantine's letter to Macarius ( Vit. Con. iii. 30), and in the ac- 
count of the Bordeaux pilgrim who visited Jerusalem seven years later. — 
Itinerar. Burdigal. Patrol, viii. 790. The earliest allusions to the discovery 
are in S. Cyril of Jerus. — Cateches. iv. 10; x. 19; xiii. 4; Epist. ad Constan- 
Hum (probably spurious). S. Ambrose (a.d. 395) gives a florid account of the 
discovery, but mentions no miracle connected with it. — Orat. in ob. Theod. 
Pope Gelasius (a.d. 492) judiciously remarks: "There is a written account 
of the discovery of the Lord's Cross, and another of the discovery of the head 
of John Baptist: novel revelations which some Catholics read. But when 
they fall into the hands of Catholics, let the caution of S. Paul be read first : 
"Prove all things ; hold fast to that which is good.'''' See Tillemont, Art. 
S. Helene ; and Baronius, Annal. iii. p. 292. 

I4 Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 30. 

*5 It is worthy of notice that when Eusebius wrote, the idea of the Resur- 
rection was most prominent in connection with the Holy Sepulchre : afterwards 
it was the Holy Cross, the true Cross, etc., etc. 



Eusebian Eactioit, and Death of Arius. 401 

in Drepanum, a town of Bithynia; then wife of Constantius 
Chlorus, to whom she bore the future head of the empire ; then 
repudiated for the sake of a political marriage: she 
finally emerged from obscurity with the rising fortunes d <s. 

of her son, by whom, it is said, she was brought to a 
full knowledge of the Gospel, and to whom she proved a faithful 
and wise counsellor; the only one, perhaps, of all his friends 
that served him without guile or fulsome adulation. 

Her death was a loss to him in more ways than one. For, 
after her departure, he fell into evil hands. A new set of 
advisers got possession of the imperial ear. So that, when we 
come to the dedication of that "House of Prayer," 

- m t \ Council 0} 

with which S. Helena's name is connected, we witness Jerusalem, 
the strange spectacle of a throng of Bishops, the glory 
of the East for dignity and learning, dishonoring the Divinity 
of Him whose death and resurrection they had professedly as- 
sembled to honor. To explain this change we must go back 
a few years, and take up the history of the Arian faction after 
the Council of Nicaea. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE EUSEBIAN FACTION, AND DEATH OF ARIUS. 

Eusebius of Nicomedia, the leader of the Arian party, had 
signed the Homoousion with great reluctance : it has _ .. 

° Eusfotui 

even been alleged, and the story is at least character- *»<* The- 

* ogms s -ni 

istic of the temper of the man, that in signing, he into exile. 
managed to drop an iota into the obnoxious word, and so con- 
fessed only a likeness instead of oneness of substance in the God- 
head. Hence the term Homoiousion, afterwards is the symbol 
of the Semiarians. However this may be, his lack of sincerity in 
the Faith soon became apparent. It also came to light that he 



402 History of the Church. 

had been an active intriguer against Constantine during the con- 
test between the latter and his rival, Licinius. He was therefore 
sent into exile, with Theognis of Nicsea as partner cf his fate. 

But the Eusebian party was powerful at court, and especially 
they had a fast friend in Constantia, the widow of Licinius. 
She helped them in many ways, while living ; and 
recalled, when she came to her end, — an event hastened, in all 
probability, by that outbreak of jealousy which had so 
cruelly robbed her of her son, — -she commended to her brother 
an Arian priest, who became from that time his bosom friend 
and counsellor. By this man the Emperor was persuaded of the 
good intentions of the Arian leaders. Eusebius and Theognis 
returned to their sees and their plots. Arius had the honor of 
a message, and, when that failed, of a letter, from the Emperor 
himself; in compliance with which he came to Constantinople, 
bringing Euzoius with him. To the somewhat vague question, 
whether they held the Faith, they readily answered in the affirm- 
Their ative. They also drew up a confession in writing, 
confession, conceived in Scriptural terms, in which the Emperor's 
theological ear could discern no token of heresy. 1 On the 
strength of this, Arius was not only received irfto favor, but was 
sent to Alexandria with an injunction that he should be restored 
to the communion of the Church. 

He encountered there a man of sterner stuff than the ami- 
able prelate he had known in other days. Alexander had 
a than sius departed in peace soon after the close of the great 
Bishop. Council. His parting breath was laden with the name 
of Athanasius. "Thou shalt not escape ! " he cried, when the 
beloved deacon failed to make his appearance ; and he laid on 
him, though absent, the burden of his office. The Church had 
confirmed the dying prelate's choice. When Arius arrived, 
therefore, in Alexandria, he found little comfort in store for 

1 " We believe in one God," etc.; "and in the Lord Jesus Christ His 
San, who was begotten (or made) of Him before all ages, God the Word by 
whom all things were made," etc. Socrat. i. 26; Sozom. ii. 27. 



Eitsebian Faction, and Death of Arms. 403 

him there. The primate repelled him ; S. Antony came down 
from the desert to warn the people against him ; a Arius 

threatening letter from the Emperor was respectfully but re P dled - 
firmly disregarded : 2 in short, "no communion for the invent- 
or of heresy," "no portion in the Catholic Church for that 
which lifts up itself against Christ," was the cry that greeted 
the arch heretic from every side. 

The Eusebians 5 found it necessary to pick their way with 
caution. The Emperor, they knew, was sensitive to attacks on 
the Creed of Nicsea. But, to balance this, he was at Eusebian 
heart indifferent to the truth anxious for peace, and Policy. 
impatient of the " troublers of Israel," whosoever they might 
be. To make sure of him, therefore, the Eusebians avoided 
all appearance of zeal for doctrine, and directed their attacks 
chiefly at men. Eustathius of Antioch was one of their Eustathius 
first victims. Charges of immorality were trumped deposed. 
up against him. A synod was quietly got together, consisting 
entirely of prominent Eusebians. The Bishop was condemned 
and deposed, chiefly on the evidence of an abandoned woman, 
and a more pliant instrument was put into his place. 4 

Hence the beginning of a schism in Antioch which lasted 
some eighty years. For the orthodox in that city ad- schism in 
hered to their deposed bishop, and kept together as a An ^Zt'. 
party, under the name of Eustathians, not only during 331-4"- 
the time of the Arian rule, but even after Providence had 
given them a prelate of irreproachable faith. 

The course pursued toward Eustathius was repeated in the 
case of Asclepas of Gaza, and Eutropius and Lucius other 

of Hadrianople. Maximus of Jerusalem, who succeed- victims. 
ed Macarius, by his easy temper played into the hands of the 

2 Both the Emperor and Eusebius of Nic. wrote, and both received 
spirited answers. St. Athanas. Apol. con. Arian. 59 ; Socrat. i. 27. 

3 This name applies generally to the Court party, consisting of Arians of 
various grades. 

* The place was offered to Eusebius of Caesarea, but he declined. Vit. 
Con. iii. 59-62. 



404 History of the Church. 

party, and escaped persecution at the cost of subsequent re- 
morse. Marcellus of Ancyra was not so discreet ; but the 
charges against him being chiefly of a doctrinal character, it 
was necessary for the faction, before making a direct attack, to 
have their own power established on a firmer basis. 

Athanasius, the meanwhile, was not forgotten. Eusebius of 
Nicomedia kept up a brisk correspondence with the leaders of 
Charges tne Meletians and other malcontents in Egypt ; and 
"Ithlna- kv their help, three accusations were framed and sub- 
szus - mitted to the judgment of Constantine. The Bishop, 

it was said, had forced the Meletians to pay him a tribute of 
linen robes ; he had assisted a rebel with money ; Macarius, a 
priest, had been sent by him to stop the ministrations of a certain 
Ischyras, and in the violence of his proceedings, had broken 
a sacred chalice. The Emperor dismissed the charges with con- 
tempt, but they were none the less bruited abroad, and others 
more heinous were added. The Episcopal "sorcerer," it was 
urged, had murdered Arsenius, a Meletian bishop, and had cut 
off his hand to make use of in necromancy. Finally, a charge 
of fornication was kept in reserve, and an abandoned woman 
was secured to bear witness to it. 

Constantine at length consented that a council should be 
Council at ^eld at Csesarea, for the trial of these and similar 
Ccesarea. charges. The Council assembled, but Athanasius de- 
clined to appear. A second synod was appointed to be holden 
Council at Tyre. Athanasius came, compelled so to do by an 
a.d. 335.' urgent command of the Emperor ; and, in the face of 
the manifest hostility of the Count Dionysius, who presided 
over the assembly, managed, on most of the charges, to cover 
~, his enemies with confusion. Arsenius was produced 

Lnarges r 

disproved, ^h both hands whole. The woman's witness mis- 
carried, the accused having taken the precaution to be person- 
ated on the trial by a friend, whom she rashly mistook for the 
alleged offender. Ischyras, it appeared, was not in Holy Or- 
ders, and his church and chalice were as much of a myth as his 
office. In short, nothing was established except the skill of the 



Eusebian Faction, and Death of Arius. 405 

" juggler" who could thus turn the tables upon his adversaries; 
and had not the Council bethought them to send a packed com- 
mittee to Egypt, who might gather fresh charges and proofs, 
and examine new witnesses, unembarrassed by his baleful pres- 
ence, their defeat would have been total, and beyond all hopes 
of recovery. As it was, they adjourned for the pres- 
ent, and proceeded in a body to Jerusalem, whither Jerusalem, 
they had been summoned by the Emperor, to assist in 
the dedication of the "Martyry," or Church of the Resur- 
rection. 

There they consummated the work so infamously begun. 
The committee sent to Egypt reported adversely to the case of 
the accused. Calvary became the second time the ahus 

scene of a wicked condemnation on the one hand, of r eceived. 
a good confession on the other. Christ was a second time 
wounded in the house of His friends. A council, second only 
to that of Nicsea in the dignity and number of the Bishops 
present, received Arius into communion, deposed Atkana- 
Athanasius, and virtually denied the Nicene faith. MarcJ//lfs 
Marcellus of Ancyra seems to have been one of the deposed. 
few that resisted. For this he also was deposed, either then or 
within a year after, on a charge of heresy akin to Sabellianism : 
a charge, by the way, which was not without foundation, his 
theory of the Immanent as distinguished from the Forthgoing 
Word looking much like a denial of the personal preexistence 
of Christ. 

Athanasius repaired at once to Constantinople ; where, the 
avenues of the court being closed against him, he planted him- 
self in the Emperor's path as he was riding out to his . 

Athanasius 

villa, and addressed him in those accents of truth and before the 

Emperor. 

soberness which Constantine, with all his faults, was 
willing enough to hear from the mouths of the clergy. His 
conscience was touched. The Episcopal cabal was summoned 
from Tyre, whither they had returned after the dedication of 
the Martyry. Five of their leaders were deputed to answer 
for the rest, who, finding Constantine averse to the sentence of 



406 History of the Church. 

deposition, and not at all disposed to see it carried out, alarmed 
New accu- his fears by a new and more ingenious slander. Atha- 
nasius had threatened, they said, to cut off the ex- 
port of corn from Egypt to Constantinople. On such a charge 
suspicion was equivalent to condemnation. The Emperor gave 
way. With a moderation, however, that proved highly dis- 
tasteful to the Eusebians, and showed a lingering sense of jus- 
tice in the imperial breast, the See of Alexandria was not de- 
clared vacant : the primate was simply banished to 

He gees into . . 

exile, Treves in Gaul. It may be added that his reception 

A.D. 336. . L 

in that capital, on the part of the faithful generally, and 
more especially at the hands of Constantinus, the Emperor's eld- 
est son, was more like a triumph than the ordinary lot of an exile. 

One thing more was needed to crown the victory of the 
Eusebian faction. Arius had been already received, but now he 
Eusebian must be recognized publicly in Constantinople, in sight 
triumph. f t h e cour t and the world. An order to that effect 
was obtained from the palace, addressed to Alexander, the aged 
and orthodox pastor of the imperial city. The arch-heretic, 
moreover, had made the way easy by signing an irreproachable 
confession of faith ; to which, also, the Emperor had sworn 
him on the fearful adjuration, "If thy faith be upright, so is 
thine oath ; if thy faith be false, may God confound thee ! " 

The good Bishop put no confidence in such professions. 
Sorely beset by his sovereign and his brother prelates, hardly 
„ , knowing what course to take, he repaired to the 

Frayer of ° ' r 

Alexander, c hurch, accompanied by one Macarius, a priest, who 
afterwards related the story to S. Athanasius, and there put up 
his petition to this effect: "If Arius is to be admitted to- 
morrow, then take Thy servant out of this world ; or else take 
Arius, lest heresy should seem to be admitted along with him." 
The prayer was answered. On the eve of the Sunday appoint- 
ed for his reception, Arius was conducted in a sort of triumph 
through the principal streets of the city. To all who 
0/ Arius. saw hi m h e seemed to be in excellent health and 
spirits. But when the procession came to a well-known spot, 



Eusebian Faction, and Death of Arius. 407 

near the great porphyry pillar, in Constantine square, a 
sudden indisposition forced him to retire to a house hard by. 
Shortly after, an outcry came from the house. The 

His s zc cicLt 'yt 

crowd rushes in. They are greeted by an awful spec- death, 
tacle. Arius, it appeared, has fallen headlong to the ' 

ground ; a rupture has taken place with a great flow of blood ; 
and, his bowels gushing out, death seems to have followed almost 
immediately. The news spread rapidly through the city, and 
through the world. Some saw in the calamity the finger of God ; 
there were others who regarded it as the effect of sorcery. It 
was left to modern unbelief to suggest that Arius had been 
poisoned by some zealous Catholic. 5 

Whatever may have been the cause of this remarkable 
event, the effect at that crisis was deep and permanent. Atha- 
nasius declares that many were converted by it. It Effect on 
was remembered the next day in a crowded church ; the the Pc °P le - 
Bishop praising God, and the people responding in a suitable 
service of thanksgiving. The name of Arius became popularly 
associated with that of Judas ; the place where he perished was 
long pointed out and avoided as a " field of blood." 

The effect on the Emperor was not so apparent. To the 
warm appeals of the crowds, who called for the restoration of 

5 The story is related with conscientious care by S. Athanasius (Op. 
torn. i. p. 670), and by Socrates. Gibbon remarks that; " those who press the 
literal narrative must make their option between poison and miracle" ; which 
is true enough, if by " miracle " be understood merely a marked intervention 
of that Providence which is present as really, though not so signally, in the 
fall of sparrows. Milman, in a worse spirit, says of the narrative of S. 
Athanasius, " His hollow charity ill disguises his secret triumph"; a cruel 
insinuation, unwarranted either by the letter or the spirit of the narrative in 
question. S. Athanasius earnestly deprecates the idea that he should " seem 

to exult over the man's death, death being common to all 

men''' 1 ; so that Milman's sneer can be justified only on the supposition 
that the repeated and earnest disclaimer is a deliberate lie. If modern histo- 
rians, by the way, would only extend to the Fathers a little of that charity 
which they are so rigorous in exacting of them, the tone of history would be 
wonderfully improved. 



408 History of the Church. 

S. Athanasius, he answered with a shade of sarcasm, "It is not 

for me to undo what so many holy priests have done. 

on the A few may have acted from spite and jealousy, but 

Emperor. . . . . , 

it were hard to bring such a charge against them 
all." He took care, however, to maintain that balance of 
wrong which is the tyrant's substitute for right, by banishing 
John, a Meletian Bishop, who happened just then to be the 
most odious of the intriguing clergy. 

He soon showed, moreover, that he was weary of the contest, 
weary of efforts that led to nothing, weary even of life. With 

that prophetic instinct which was one of his gifts, he 
pares for felt, though still in good health and unimpaired vigor, 

that the time had come to set his house in order, and 
prepare for his last account. 6 He completed the division of the 
Empire among his sons and nephews. That vision of solidarity 
in Church and State, for which he had so passionately labored, 
had become dim and broken, and now vanished altogether from 
before his eyes. His gaze was fixed, instead, upon an empty 
tomb, which stood, surrounded by twelve others, in the splendid 
new church of the Holy Apostles. This he had erected for his 
own repose. It was now solemnly dedicated, perhaps with 
more seriousness and less adulation, on the part of the court 
clergy, than had been customary of late on such occasions. 
"Happy Prince!" one of them had recently exclaimed, at the 
dedication of the Martyry; " blessed in this life with the sover- 
eignty of the Roman world, destined to reign with Christ 
through life everlasting! " But lies had begun to pall upon 
Flattery tne i m P er i a l palate He rebuked the blasphemy of 
rebuked. ^ e re yerend eulogist : a token that the faith which 
had been but as "smoking flax" amid the pride and pomp of 
his over-busy career, had in it, nevertheless, a spark enkindled 
from above, which neither the scandals of the Church, nor even 

6 Eusebius, in his life of Constantine, is a eulogist : but there is no reason 
to believe that he is guilty of any positive false statements. The suppressio 
veri is his principal offence. For this reason I give full credit to his account 
of the latter end of Constantine's remarkable career. 



Eusebian Faction, and Death of Arius. 409 

the adulation of courtly clergy, had been able wholly to 
extinguish. 

In this respect, the end of Constantine was a signal proof 
of the power and grace of the Gospel. He had hitherto not 
only avoided baptism, but had not even ventured to Powero y 
become a catechumen. His hardy mind was free the Gos P el - 
enough in dealing with matters of doctrine, but a nameless 
dread had kept him from profaning the sacraments. He had 
used religion too much as a power of State, but he had not 
failed to see in it something more. He now began to fall back 
upon these deeper views. Nothing was omitted that 

^ r & The strong 

could give seriousness, earnestness, publicity, and all *««» 

humbled. 

outward show of humility to his repentance. The world 
saw in him the spectacle of a strong man becoming " as a little 
child ": a spectacle the more striking from the contrast afforded 
when the news of an invasion from the side of Persia disturbed 
for a moment the tranquillity of the scene, and the old soldier, 
appearing in the field once more, with his accustomed vigor, 
dissipated by his presence the storm of war. 

Not long after this, the frame of the Emperor was, for the 
first time, shaken by a serious illness. He made no further 
delay in his preparations for death, but received the 
laying on of hands which admitted him to the grade Constantm , 
of catechumens. He was still well enough to repair 
to church, and to kneel on the bare pavement, as he poured 
forth his confessions and earnest supplications. These things 
occurred during the seven weeks of Pentecost. Towards the 
end of the same period he was baptized, 7 probably by Eusebius 
of Nicomedia, in the Church of the Holy Martyrs ; was arrayed 
in the white robes of a neophyte, declining to wear the purple 
any more; piously attended to such testamentary duties as still 

7 The charge of " superstition," etc., so often urged against the early 
Church, on account of this and other instances of the delay of baptism, would 
be more pertinent if the phenomenon of late repentance were at all peculiar 
to the early Church. For I need hardly say, that late repentance is just as 
" superstitious " as late baptism. 

18 



41 o History of the Church. 

remained : and departed about noon on the closing day of the 
Feast. 8 

The flattery that attended him through life showed itself 
genuine by clinging for some time to his senseless remains. 
H i S Until his sons could arrive to take charge of the 

funeral. f unera i ? h e j a y m state m t h e cen t ra l apartment of the 

palace, and the dukes, and counts, and dignitaries of all ranks, 
daily did obeisance to the coffined form. Thus "he continued 
to reign even after death," which was not altogether an empty 
honor, for ordinarily the decease of a sovereign was the signal 
for anarchy to awaken, and for chronic revolution to shake the 
Empire. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONSTANTIUS. — ARIAN SECTS AND SYMBOLS. 

Few things in history are less attractive than the course of a 
Religious religious controversy when it has lost its singleness of 
strife. a - m ag a q ues tion of truth ; when the current of earnest 
inquiry which at first gave an impetus to it branches into a hun- 
dred ever-shifting channels, converting society into a malarious 
delta, as it were — a monotonous but tortuous waste — of intrigues, 
plots, persecutions, feuds, and blind and bigoted displays of the 
waywardness of human passion. 

But such was the aspect of the Arian strife as it spread 

through the world under Constantine's successors. With all 

the bitterness, but little of the dignity, of a religious 

Aspect of . . i r , • • i j 

the Arian question, it seemed a mere tangle of ecclesiastical and 
state intrigues : political passions, which had been 
driven from the swept and garnished house of an overpower- 
ing despotism, having returned under the guise of a zeal for 

dogma. 

8 Whitsun-Day 



ConstantiuSy Arian Sects and Symbols. 4 1 1 

And this, in fact, was the cause of many evils of the times. 
By a struggle of three hundred years, the Church had asserted a 
freedom of thought and action unknown elsewhere. 
Civil liberty was hardly more than dreamed of ; philo- the Refuge 
sophic speculation had lost all earnestness; literature 
and the arts could not employ, they could only dissipate, the 
mind ; the sole breath that breathed upon the stagnant waters 
was that which filled the sails of the Church — all other winds 
were bound : so that when good men would look for a field of 
honorable ambition, or when bad men would use liberty for a 
cloak of maliciousness, they were both alike compelled to 
resort to the Church's freedom, and to go about their work 
under the Church's colors. Hence a necessary con- Necessary 
fusion of things sacred and profane. Hence a rapid Con f uslon - 
reaction towards essential heathenism. 'For it is of the essence 
of heathenism to make religion an instrument of State ; to sow 
diverse seeds in the same field, to weave diverse materials into 
the web of the same garment. Believers were aware of the 
danger on this side, and they struggled against it ; but they 
could not escape it altogether. In the new state of things, as in 
the old, there was a fond persistence in the attempt to 

The Church 

gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles. The trees used by the 

State. 

of the wood elected the bramble for their king, and 
thought to solace themselves beneath its shadow. A half- 
converted court, " pansebastos — all-worshipful," an object of 
awful reverence to good men ; but, like all idols, a mere tool 
to the wicked and designing, dictated articles of faith to the 
Christian world; and self-contradictory as the dictates were, 
the majority of that world seemed ready to receive them. 

Yet it is important to observe, that so far as this end was 
reached in the confusions of the fourth century, it was under 
the auspices of heresy, and more particularly of Arian- The Arian 
ism. The side of truth was the side of opposition to court ^ art y- 
the court. The heretical party was eminently the court party. 
It so happened, therefore, in the good providence of God, that 
while persecution is peculiar to no creed or sect, but springs 



4 1 2 History of the Church. 

from infirmities common to human nature, yet the Church con- 

tinued in the fourth century, as in the ages just pre- 

stiiia ceding, to be the chosen witness against persecution. 1 

witness. . x 

She contended for the liberty, or, to speak more cor- 
rectly, for the sanctity, of belief. In her new conflict against 
heathenism from within, as in her previous warfare against 
heathenism from without, the sign by which she conquered was 
that of a kingdom not of this world: she vindicated her creed, 
as she had established her existence, by holding aloof from the 
blandishments of State favor, and by a spirited testimony against 
subservience to State power. 

A period involving such an issue has a permanent interest of 
its own, notwithstanding the irksomeness (it may be) of some 
Subject of its details, and the sad comments it suggests upon 
Divisions, religion and human nature. To go at length into 
these details is not within the scope of the present history. The 
facts that seem most essential for an understanding of the spirit 
of the period may be in part summed up, and in part narrated, 
under the following general divisions : I. The Emperors and their 
policy; II. The court party in the Church, the Arian or Eusebian 
faction; III. The symbols of this party; IV. Their sects or 
schools; V. Their persecutions, quarrels, victory, and defeat: 
through all which there runs, like a golden thread, the life of 
that noble confessor, Athanasius the Great, the Elijah of the day 
— the one among seven thousand who, in the midst of a defec- 
tion which seemed almost universal, bowed not the knee to 
Baal. 

Of the divisions above mentioned, the first four form the 
Plan of this subject of the present chapter ; the fifth demands more 
chapter. S p ace; anc [ enters more or less into all the remainder of 
this book. 

1 See the noble testimony of S. Athanasius, Apolog. pro fuga. I cannot 
deny that had circumstances been different the testimony might have been dif- 
ferent. As the stars are visible in the daylight only from the bottom of a well 
or pit, so there are some truths (and among them the wisdom of tolerance) 
which can only be discerned from the depths of adverse circumstances. 



Constantius y Avian Sects and Symbols. 413 

Constantine, before his death, had provided for the division 
of the Empire among his three sons and two of his nephews; 
in the actual partition, however, the nephews were 1. 
crushed out by a conspiracy, of obscure origin, among 
the soldiery. The three brothers, Constantine, Constantius, and 
Constans, redistributed the inheritance among themselves. To 
Constantine II., the eldest, fell the Gauls and borders constanHm 
of the Rhine, with a certain honorary preeminence "' 337 34 °' 
which entitled him to reside in Constantinople. But a quarrel 
with Constans stripped him of his inheritance and life in less 
than four years, and made the victor sole master of constans, 
two thirds of the Roman Empire. Ten years later 337-350. 
Constans himself was slain by the usurper Magnentius. Both 
he and his eldest brother had favored the Homoousian cause, 
though neither of the two was of a character 2 to reflect much 
credit upon it. 

Constantius, the second and ablest of the brothers, a man 
of diminutive frame, but tough, laborious, temperate, chaste, 
whose vanity led him to imitate his father without a constantius, 
spark of his genius or of his nobler traits, 3 avenged the A ' D ' 337 ~ 3<51, 
murder of Constans, overthrew Magnentius, and to the no small 
grief of the Catholics — for he was decidedly addicted to Arian 
views — became undisputed sovereign of the East and West. 
The power thus acquired had been deeply stained, from the 
outset, with the mark of blood. Directly on the death of his 
father, the young prince had conceded to the clamors of the 
soldiery, and perhaps instigated the murder of his two uncles, 
seven cousins, and sundry other persons connected by marriage 
or blood with the imperial family. Gallus and Julian, the two 
youngest children of Julius Constantius, were the only members 
of the family that escaped. The rest of the reign of Constantius 
was worthy of such a beginning. It was a period of intrigue and 

2 S. Athanasius speaks well of Constans, but the pagan historians 
(Zosimus more especially) accuse him of gross sensuality. 

3 Fcr the testimonies of contemporaries (orthodox, Arian, and pagan) to 
the character of these Emperors, see Tillemont, Hist, des Emfieretirs. 



1 1 4 History of the Church. 

misrule, distinguished by an excess of female influence, 4 and by 
an unprecedented growth of those parasites that feed on the 
Eunuchs o/ l az y dignity of Oriental despotism, the eunuchs of the 
i e Palace. p a i ace> This class of favorites, the types in all ages 
of insolence, obsequiousness, craft, and cruelty, had been re- 
pressed by the vigor of Constantine ; but his successor found 
them indispensable to his comfort, put all things into their 
hands, and with their chief, the celebrated chamberlain Euse- 
bias, he was wittily declared to possess some credit. 

Next to these slaves, the prelates of the Eusebian faction 
were his principal directors. Having once gained his ear, and 

II, that of the eunuchs and court ladies, a matter easily 
of C the TY effected by Eusebius of Nicomedia, 5 they resolved 
Eusbbians. themselves into a sort of roving commission for the 
redress of ecclesiastical abuses ; holding synods, framing new 
creeds and canons, deposing Bishops who withstood them, 
flocking from place to place — to the no small detriment, it was 
said, of the postal service 6 — and making the Church a scandal 
to the heathen world. The Emperor is described as chief busy- 
body of this busy clique ; " the Bishop of Bishops," his flatterers 
profanely, but not inappropriately, called him. His father's 
weakness for theologic fame was exaggerated in him to 

r V t Ct r£ ft cSS 

of Constan- a mere insanity. While aiming to make his own views 

tius. 

a law to the Church, he shifted uneasily from one 
position to another ; so that his days were taken up, it was 
said, and his sleep went from him, in the making or unmaking 
of new modes of faith. 

The ambiguous confession of Arius, upon the strength of 

which he had been received at Jerusalem, Tyre, and Constanti- 

iii. nople, was found, on further trial, to be unsatisfactory. 

Creeds It was not a creed that could fill either the hearts or 

Councils, the mouths of a Christian people. Taking advantage, 

4 Which influence, in the case of the accomplished Empress Eusebia, 
seems to have mitigated somewhat the Emperor's cruelty. Tillemont, Hist, 
des Emp. torn. iv. p. 750. 5Theod. ii. 3. 

6 Ammianus Marcellinus, quoted by Tillemont, Gibbon, Gieseler, etc. 



Constantius, Avian Sects and Symbols. 415 

therefore, of a great throng of Bishops assembled at Antioch for 
the dedication of a sumptuous new building, called the Golden 
Church, 7 the dominant party in the East put forth Antioch, 
another and fuller confession ; but this also failing of Domfnicum 
its purpose, they ventured on another, and then still Aureum. 
another, till five creeds, in all, attested the activity of the 
Synod, and their eagerness to harmonize, if possible, all shades 
of taste and opinion. Ten years later, many minor synods 
having met the meanwhile, the same class of prelates came to- 
gether again in a numerous council at Sirmium. Their sirmium, 
immediate object was to condemn Photinus, a disciple A ' D ' 351 ' 
of Marcellus of Ancyra, who had developed the heresy attrib- 
uted to his master, and openly taught that the Son, before the 
Incarnation, had no personal existence, but was only the Word 
immanent in the bosom of the Father. In condemning him, 
they framed and set forth two new symbols, the longer of which 
contains twenty-six anathemas. Eight years later a sehuda, 
new set of creeds was issued from Seleucia ; and after A ' D " 359 ' 
two years, another from Antioch, of a totally different descrip- 
tion. Of the whole number of confessions thus put in Antioch, 
circulation from time to time, and constituting what A ' D * 3fil ' 
Socrates appropriately calls " the labyrinth ' ' of Arian doctrine, 
about eighteen can be distinguished at the present day ; 8 though 
there were doubtless many more that have left no record. 

Athanasius, with the grim humor that occasionally enlivens the 
severity of his style, sternly ridicules these dated creeds. 9 Dated 

The heretics, he said, were obliged to affix to their con- Creeds. 
fessions the day and year of their issue, that men might know when 
their faith began and when it ended. To a modern reader it 
is equally remarkable that the Eusebians, who were " liberals " 
in matters of faith, went beyond all others in shutting up to one 

7 This Synod of the Dedication has always been held in high honor by 
the East, notwithstanding the deficiencies of its creeds. 

8 Tillemont, Mem. p. servir, vi. 2, cii. 

9 Select Treatises of S. Athanasius, Oxford Lib. of the Fathers, part i. 
pp. 73-128. See, also, Socrat. ii. 37. 



4 1 6 History of the Church. 

meaning the text of Scripture, anathematizing all differences of 
interpretation. Thus, to quote one instance from the longer 
creed of Sirmium, "Whosoever shall say that Let us make 
„., . ?nan was not said by the Father to the Son, 

Their J 

tvasive let him be anathema." We may also observe that 

character. 

among the variations of Eusebian creeds there was but 
one, 10 and that one speedily retracted, which openly impugned 
the Deity of the Son of God. The common aim of all would 
seem to have been, while surpassing the Nicene formula itself 
in fervid declarations of the glory of Christ as God, yet to 
avoid the use of any word which could not be interpreted in 
another sense. They omitted, of course, the term " consub- 
stantial. ' ' Simply defective and evasive, they insinuated heresy, 
but could hardly be said to confess it. 

But in the worst of times there is honest error as well as 
honest regard for the truth. Eusebian evasions could not be 
arian satisfactory to either of these. From the attraction 
Sects - towards the Nicene faith on the one side, and a fierce 
repulsion on the other, sects and schools arose among the 
Arians, 11 the principal of which may be described as follows : 

The Eastern clergy generally were orthodox in spirit, but 
courtly, prudent, deferential to superiors, anxious for peace at 
The Semi- an y price, and disposed to regard the Homoousion as a 
anans. needless bone of contention. They therefore availed 
themselves readily of the term Homoiousion ; a word suscepti- 
Their ble, it was thought, of an equally orthodox meaning, 
while it was not so obnoxious to the friends of Arius. 
In the same way, they abhorred the idea that "once the Son 
was not," but dreaded the seeming paradox of the phrase " Be- 
gotten without beginning." It seemed enough for them to 
declare that He was "begotten before all time." These be- 
came known as the Semiarians — a school which proved but as 

10 This creed, framed at Sirmium (a.d. 357), signed by Hosius, and in 
a.d. 361 adopted at Antioch, anathematized both the homo and the homoi 
ousion. 

11 Newman's Arians of the Fourth Century. 



Constantius, Arian Sects and Symbols* 417 

wax in the hands of the Eusebian leaders, but which atoned for 
the logical deficiencies of their creed by a rhetorical profusion 
of terms of honor to the Son, surpassing the Catholics them- 
selves in the fervor and brilliancy of their ascriptions. Basil 
of Ancyra was one of their purest and most learned men. S. 
Cyril of Jerusalem was a better type of the school: cyriiof 
a man too facile and addicted to the Oriental vice of y erusalem - 
obsequiousness, 12 but eloquent, learned, and favorably known to 
posterity for his admirable Discourses to Catechumens. In the 
latter part of his life, he quarrelled with Acacius of Caesarea, 
the leader of one wing of the Eusebian party, and suffered de- 
position and other persecutions, which brought him to greater 
soundness and firmness in the faith. Similar causes had a like 
good effect on many of the Semiarian leaders. 

A more plausible ground was taken by Acacius, the learned 
disciple and successor of Eusebius of Caesarea. He thought it 
best to avoid the term ousia, ' ' substance, ' ' and was 

Homoeans 

content to say that the Son is homoion, " like," or kata . or 

Acacians. 

panta homoion, "altogether like," unto the Father. 
This being Scriptural in language, it was hard to deem it other- 
wise than sound in meaning. Cyril of Jerusalem signed it with 
some reservations, 13 and there were others who thought it quite 
equivalent to the Nicene symbol. It was intended, however, 
as a cover for freedom of unbelief; and its supporters, known 
under the name of Eusebians, Acacians, or Homoeans, proved 
to be the craftiest of all the Arian sects. 

Aetius, a self-made man, clear-sighted, hardy, irreverential, 
and intellectually honest, rose, by his vigorous logic, 14 

, 00 Anomceans 

to the position of a master in the Eusebian schools, or 

• • r • Aetians. 

shattered the evasive definitions of more cautious teach- 
ers, and took his stand upon simple and original Arianism. 

12 That is, if the Epistle to Constantius be his, of which, however, we 

may fairly entertain a doubt. 

x 3 He explained that by "■ like " he understood " like in essence." 

r * According to Philostorgius, he was an invincible debater. No man of 

his day could stand before him. iii. 15. 

18* 



41 8 History of the Church. . 

He contended that the Son is anomoion, "altogether unlike" 

the Father. "The Father is irreligious, the Son religious," 

said Eudoxius, one of his disciples, to the people of 

Eudoxius. 

Constantinople ; 15 " for the Father worships no one, 
but the Son worships the Father. ' ' Aetius was scouted by the 
court as an "Atheist." His followers were called Anomoeans, 
Aetians, Eudoxians, or sometimes Eunomians ; the last name 
being taken from Eunomius, their most learned and polished 
leader. 

Such were the parties that successively arose from a common 
ground of hostility to the Nicene faith, or from jealousy and 

. distrust of S. Athanasius. They existed all along 

common under the general name of Arians, or Eusebians ; but 

ground. , 

towards the end of the reign of Constantius they sep- 
arated more and more into mutually hostile sects. The Aetians, 
it is said, 16 were the first that broke off into a close communion. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CONSTANTIUS. — ARIAN PERSECUTIONS. 

The accession of the sons of Constantine led at first to a respite 
arianPer- f persecution. Athanasius and other exiled Bishops 

SECUTIONS, l r 

a.d. 33 8. returned to their sees. 

But the Council of Antioch, commonly known as that of the 
Dedication, protested against their return, as a breach 

Council at ' r ° 

Antioch of order. A Bishop duly deposed could be restored 

and second . 

exile of only by such a body as that which had deposed 

Athana- ' . 1 1 • 

sius, him. The plea was plausible enough ; but it was 

vitiated by the fact that the Easterns in this case had 

not only neglected to consult the Westerns 1 in the first instance, 

*5 Socrat. ii. 43. l6 Philostorg. iii. 14. 

1 The words of Julius of Rome, misunderstood by Socrates [Hist. ii. 17), 



Constantius, Arian Persecutions. 419 

but afterwards, when, at their own request, a new and special 
council was holden in Italy, they had declined appearing at it. 
It was manifest, therefore, that they were averse to a fair trial 
of the cases in dispute. They had on their side, however, the 
authority of Constantius. The persecuted primate was again 
driven from Alexandria, and at the cost of riots and massacres 
and sacrilege without end, a certain Gregory was installed in 
the vacant see. 

Rome now became the city of refuge to all who suffered 
for the Nicene faith. 2 Constans was friendly to them; Pope 
Julius embraced their cause with ardor. In a few years the city 
was full of exiles. Marcellus of Ancyra, whose doubt- Exiles in 
ful orthodoxy was upheld by Athanasius — a man ever Rome. 
slow to think evil of a friend ; Paul of Constantinople, five times 
driven from his see ; Lucius of Hadrianople, Hellanicus of Tri- 
polis, and innumerable others, Bishops and presbyters of Thrace, 
Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, bore witness in 
Rome and to the West of the outrages inflicted by episcopal and 
other tyrants. 

Nor were their complaints unheeded in the Western court. 
Athanasius followed Constans from one capital to another, and 
seven times at least he pleaded before him the cause of 

Council of 

the suffering Churches. His arguments and petitions Sardica, 
at length prevailed. 3 Constans, with the consent or 
acquiescence of Constantius, summoned a great council of the 
East and West to meet at Sardica, a town that lay convenient to 
both parties on the eastern border of his dominions. The 

are these : " Are you ignorant of the custom that we should be written to, and 
thereupon should be determined what is right?" So again: "According to 
ecclesiastical law we ought all to be written to," etc. Ap. Athanas. Apolog. 
ii.; see notes of Valesius and Lowth to Socrat. ii. 17. The meaning is, that 
in matters concerning the whole Church — such as the trial of a chief Bishop — 
all the Bishops, the Roman included, ought to be heard. 

2 Theod. ii. 4; Sozom. iii. 7-10 ; Socrat. ii. 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15. 

3 Philostorgius (iii. 13) says that bribery was used : an accusation always 
resorted to in such cases. 



42 o • History of the Church. 

council met, but the Bishops separated. The Westerns assumed, 
Schism anc ^ at l en & tn declared, the innocence of Athanasius, 
begun Marcellus, and Asclepas of Gaza : the Easterns, deeply 

aggrieved, and apparently not without reason, 4 retired to Philip- 
popolis, 5 and vehemently protested. Doctrinal differences were 
between the aggravated by misunderstandings on both sides. The 
East consequence was a schism between the two great sec- 

tions; or a series, rather, of mutual anathemas, which put each 
and half of the Church under the spiritual censures of the 

West. other half, and introduced the wedge of an ever- 

increasing separation. 

But Constans had made up his mind to carry out the decrees 
of Sardica, and intimated as much to his brother in the East. 
A , . The latter was alarmed. Quite a panic ensued amonsr 

Athanasius -*» x o 

restored, the eunuchs, women, and Bishops, who composed his 

A.D. 349. L L 

court. It was necessary to propitiate a power they 
were unable to resist ; and Gregory, the intruding Bishop of 
Alexandria, having opportunely died, the way seemed open 
to secure the good offices of Athanasius. He was not per- 
mitted only, but urged, to return. Three pressing invitations 
were sent him from the court ; and when at length he con- 
tra, sented, his journey through Syria and Palestine — to 
u ekome. ga y notri i n g f n j s reception in Egypt — was signalized 
by ovations and unqualified submissions. Constantius dealt 
with him as with a prince and peer. Condescending to ask the 
loan of one church in Alexandria for the use of the Arians, he 
was obliged to put up with a refusal : the Bishop would not 
grant it, unless a like favor should be accorded to the Catholics 
at Antioch. On the other hand, it was in vain that Athanasius 
begged the Emperor to confront him with his accusers. No 
accusers could be found. " If any such there be," said the 

4 Sozom. iii. 13. The West was manifestly averse to put Athanasius on 
trial: which did not seem fair, as he had been accused and condemned (how- 
ever unrighteously) by councils of high character. 

5 Their action, however, is dated from Sardica. See Cave's Life of S. 
Athanas. sect. vii. 6. 



Constantius, Avian Persecutions. 421 

Emperor, " I call God to witness that I will not listen to them." 
Indeed, Ursacius and Valens, who had been hitherto the most 
bitter of their number, wrote a solemn retractation of all that had 
been said against the saint, declaring in plain terms that lies and 
forgeries were at the bottom of it all. 

The death of Constans and the establishment of the power 
of Constantius in the West, shortly revealed the hollowness 
of these professions. The ruin of the great Primate sudden 
was again determined on ; but the influence he had change. 
gained in all quarters, and the hold he had upon the people of 
Alexandria, inspired a wholesome terror in the councils of Con- 
stantius, and made it necessary to proceed with a certain caution. 
There were outworks to be carried before the citadel could be 
attempted. Accordingly, the first step of the Emperor, after 
the death of his brother, was to assure Athanasius of the con- 
tinuance of his favor. 

In other cases, there was no such reason for delay. Pho- 
tinus, in a council at Sirmium, already mentioned, was tried 
and deposed : a condemnation particularly valuable 
to the Eusebians, as the heresy of that Bishop could be 'renewed, 
made to reflect upon Marcellus, his master ; upon Atha- A ' D ' 351 ' 
nasius, the firm friend of the latter ; and upon the council of 
Sardica, which had stood by them both. Another step was 
gained when Ursacius and Valens were induced to retract their 
retractation. The old charges being thus revived, a few others 
were added, and the whole batch was lodged with Liberius, who 
had succeeded Pope Julius in the See of Rome. In the mean- 
time the work of proscription and persecution was vigorously 
going on : trials, depositions, tortures, exiles, the madness of the 
people, the ruthless infatuation of priests and rulers. Constanti- 
nople especially was the scene of outrages disgraceful to human 
nature Paul the Bishop, who had been restored at the same time 
with Athanasius, had to yield once more to Mace- PauI f 
donius, his Arian rival ; was inveigled away from the Const ™pi e 
city; and was finally strangled at Cucusus a town of b »ntshed. 
Cappadocia. The capital was in a ferment of rage and grief. 



4 22 History of the Church. 

Macedonius could govern only with the sword ; and, as usual 

when spiritual men are intrusted with carnal weapons, he used 

it awkwardly, and with senseless cruelty. 6 There was a butchery 

.of some three thousand persons. There were tor- 

Cruelties of ± 

Maccdo- " tures unheard of in Decian or Dioclesian times. The 

nius. 

breasts of women were burnt with hot eggs or com- 
pressed with wooden pincers ; children were torn from the arms 
of their mothers and baptized by force ; the Eucharist was 
crammed down the throats of recusants ; churches were de- 
stroyed or pillaged; towns were sacked and depopulated; crowds 
of Novatian peasantry, who made common cause with the Cath- 
olics, armed themselves with the weapons of despair and routed 
the disciplined legions that had been sent against them : in 
short, the rule of Macedonius became a byword of terror; 
tyranny and rebellion were mutually enkindled to the point of 
frenzy; and the most eminent heathen historian of the times 
was fully warranted in exclaiming, "No beast is so cruel to 
man as many of the Christians are to one another." 

The subjugation of the Western Church was marked by fewer 
atrocities, but, for the time being, with a greater measure of 
Persecution success. " Condemn Athanasius or give up your sees " 
" was the usual alternative to the Bishops. Among the 
eminent clergy, Vincentius of Aries succumbed : Paulinus of 
Treves resisted. But in a numerous council at Milan, holden 
n .. . under the eye of the Emperor and consisting of three 

Councils of J * o 

Miia and nun dred prelates, defection proved contagious and was 
a.d. 353-355. almost universal; only a few, such as Dionysius of 
Milan, Eusebius of Vercellae, and Lucifer of Cagliari, embraced 
the alternative of exile. The cause of these confessors was vig- 
orously taken up by S. Hilary of Poitiers, "the trumpet of the 
s. Hilary Latins against Arianism. " A convert from philosophy, 
of Poitiers, jj^g em j nen t man h ac [ been led into the Church by 

private and diligent study of the Scriptures ; but his fervid 
genius, compared by the ancients to the swift and turbid course 

6 Socrat. ii. 37, 38. 



Constantius, Avian Persecutions. 423 

of the river Rhone, had (notwithstanding his ignorance of 
Greek) enriched his mind with '-'the spoils of the Egyptians," 
so that he was fitted by education, as well as by nature and 
grace, for the honorable position of a Gallic Athanasius — an up- 
holder and in due time a restorer of orthodoxy. For the present, 
however, his eloquent appeals to Constantius served only to win 
him a place among those whom he so generously defended. 

The sad overthrow of so many of the Westerns was of course 
not effected without threats and violence. It is not to be de- 
nied, however, that the weapons most complained of The 
by orthodox writers showed more of the serpent than E ^m^°b y 
of the wolf, in the Emperor's proceedings. He some- kt ^dness. 
times persecuted by declining to persecute. As S. Hilary elo- 
quently complained, 7 he tickled the palates of his victims instead 
of flaying their backs ; he invited them to dinner instead of 
sending them to jail ; he used gold instead of iron, sunshine 
instead of flames : in short, when he found them all cloaked 
and muffled up against an expected storm, he uncloaked them 
by the warmth of his flattery and caresses. The consequence 
was that many of those who lapsed "had no circumstance to 
plead in extenuation of their guilt ' ' ; they could only bewail 
the power of "Judas kisses and Judas sops," or of "wolves 
that enticed them from the fold by coming in sheep's clothing." 

The crowning success of his guile was in the lamentable fall 
of Liberius of Rome, and Hosius of Cordova. The former, 
when brought to Milan, resisted all efforts to over- 

& ' Fall of 

throw him, with sufficient firmness on his own part, Liberius 

of Rome. 

and with more than sufficient zeal against the weaker 
brethren. He was banished to Beroea, a town in Thrace. 
There two years' experience of the hardships of exile, with the 
solicitations of friends, the seductions of enemies, and the spe- 
cious desire of restoring peace at Rome — for the people in that 
city were in a state of riotous indignation against Felix, the 

7 Quoted in full by Tillemont, VI. 2, liv. 

8 Sozom. iv. II, 15; Tillemont, Arians, sect, lxix ; Newman's ^mw, 
etc., chap. iv. sect. iii. 



424 History of the Church. 

Arian intruder : — all this so shook his resolution that he re- 
nounced S. Athanasius, signed the Sirmium confession, wrote 
abject letters to the Emperor and the Eastern Bishops, and, 
finally, anathematized all who should refuse to follow his ex- 
ample. His enemies delayed his restoration till he should drink 
the bitter cup to the dregs. They were also anxious to make 
terms in behalf of Felix, but this the Romans would not hear 
of. "One God, one Christ, one Bishop," was their answer to 
every proposition for a divided see. 

The venerable Hosius, now an hundred and one years old, 
after a noble testimony in a letter to Constantius, which still 
Fail of remains, 9 was at length tortured into signing the most 
malignant of the Arian Creeds, and into an act of com- 
munion with Ursacius and Valens, the most odious of the leaders 
of the Arian party : the further guilt of condemning S. Atha- 
nasius he seems to have steadily declined. His end, however, 
is involved in a cloud of conflicting rumors. 10 

Athanasius was thus universally condemned, forsaken, or 
stripped by violence of his friends and allies." It only re- 
Athanasius mained to get possession of his person. For this the 
forsa en. master f fae world condescended to use stratagem as 
well as force, laying his plans with a secrecy and skill that 
showed his sense of the importance of the object. 

On the night of the eighth of February, 12 the year that fol- 
lowed the Council of Milan, the Saint was keeping vigil with 
a large congregation, in the Church of S. Theonas, 

Attempted ° b ° ' ' 

seizure, when suddenly the Duke Syrianus, at the head of a 
force of more than five thousand men, oenetrated the 
suburbs of the slumbering city : silently posted a guard at each 
avenue leading from the church ; and, bursting open the doors, 
hurled a tumultuous mass of soldiery into the body of the sacred 

9 St. Atlianas. Hist. Arian. ad Monach. xliv. 

10 See Tillemont, torn. vii. part 2. 

11 The events last described partly preceded, partly followed, the attack 
upon Athanasius. 

12 St. Athanas. Aftolog. pro fitga. 



Constantius, Arian Persecutions. 425 

building. There was an outcry of shouts and groans, a flight 
of deadly arrows, with "swords flashing in the lamplight," a 
swaying to and fro of the excited crowd. The Archbishop sat 
calmly on his throne in the sanctuary, and bade his deacon read 
the one hundred and thirty-sixth Psalm. High above the tumult 
rang the inspiriting strain, For His mercy endureth forever, the 
people the meanwhile saving themselves as they could, and the 
military thrusting, stabbing, pushing, and trampling down all 
before them as they pressed in broken ranks towards the Altar. 
The Bishop refused to leave his place, lest the baffled wrath 
of the intruders should fall more violently upon the people. 
"Better risk myself," he declared, "than occasion 

His escape. 

mischief to them." At length he was swept away, 
fainting, in a sort of eddy, by the increasing pressure of the 
crowd ; was carried, he knew not whither ; and on recovering, 
found himself in a place of secresy and safety. 

For six years after this he remained concealed from his 
enemies, with a price set upon his head, sought for everywhere 
by the Ahab of the day, and followed by a flood of His 

vindictive calumny. 13 But the popular heart was retreats - 
with him in his retirement, and, as is not unusual in such cases, 
assigned him lurking-places of the most improbable description. 
Thus, he lay for yea?s, it was said, in a dry cistern ; or, again, 
he was hidden and attended by a devout and beautiful young vir- 
gin : 14 stories that have a certain value as showing the confi- 
dence men felt in his matchless powers of endurance, or in his 
childlike purity of soul, but are entitled to little or no Hisac- 
credit as matters of fact. It is more certain that he ***»& 
occasionally resorted to Alexandria and other busy haunts ; 

x 3 By his flight, it was said, he had confessed his guilt : a charge which 
brought out his Apolog. pro fuga. 

x 4 This story was related by the virgin, fifty years after, to Palladius, Bp. 
of Helenopolis. — Pallad. Hist. Lusiac. 135. It is remarkable, by the way, 
that S. Athanasius (in his Apolog. pro fuga) mentions a scandal of the same 
sort against Leontius, an Arian : a thing he would hardly have done had he 
himself been in the same case. 



426 History of the Church. 

and more especially, that he was present in disguise at the 
great Council of Ariminum. His writings during this period 
show that he was well informed of all that was going forward, 
and that he was in no danger of being forgotten by friend or foe. 
He had a sturdy body-guard, equally vigilant and incorrup- 
tible, in the monks of Upper Egypt ; and it was doubtless in 
„. , their congenial society that the greater part of his 

His abode ° J ° x 

amonjrthe exile was spent. To these simple men Athanasius was 

Monks. l L 

the model of a saint and Bishop. He could not only 
sympathize with them, but could take more than an equal part 
in their labors and exercises. He came among them, moreover, 
Death of at a happy time. Their venerable leader, S. Antony, 
s. Antony, j^ j ugt departed t0 hj s restj j n tne one hundred and 

fifth year of his life, bequeathing all his property, "a garment 
and sheepskin, to Bishop Athanasius," and predicting — what 
shortly came to pass — a period of sacrilege and confusion in the 
Church of God: he had seen in a vision "a herd of mules 
kicking at the Table of the Lord," 15 he had heard a voice cry- 
ing, " My Altar shall be made an abomination ! " With such 
predictions the saint had gone away from his "children" and 
had left them orphans. But when, shortly after, there appeared 
among them the slight form and angel face of their great Alex- 
andrian father, it seemed as if Heaven had recompensed them 
for all their loss. There were accordingly no bounds to their 
affectionate devotion. In vain Constantius sent band after band 
into the desert to seize "the troubler of Israel," to hunt the 
"partridge upon the mountains." It was easy to break up the 
nest, but the bird had flown. In vain torture was resorted to : 
the sufferers were Egyptians as well as monks, and it was im- 
possible to extract a groan from them, much less a word of infor- 
mation. They silently stretched out their necks to the sword, 
and the soldiers had to search for other victims. 

Among such men Athanasius was beyond the reach of the 
tyrant's power. What is more, he lay beyond the reach of that 

x s Sozom. vi. 5. 



Constantius, Avian Persecutions. 427 

bitterness of soul, so often the lot of exiles for opinion's sake, 
and which so often sours into an habitually querulous 

Security 

and despondent temper. Nothing was more remarka- and 

. Serenity. 

ble in this great man than the serenity with which he 
witnessed, and so far as possible excused, the treachery, the 
weakness, the timid and time-serving spirit, of the majority of 
his friends. There have been men in all ages who have stood 
alone : it was the privilege of S. Athanasius that his solitude was 
cheered by unfailing sunshine. He lived in a sphere to which 
doubt, mistrust, and disappointment could win no access. 

Alexandria, the meanwhile, was, like all the orthodox cities, 
a prey to popular disorder and fierce misrule. 16 The Catholics 
tried in vain, by two appeals to the Emperor, to ob- 
tain redress for the violence which had deprived them inAiex- 

, andria. 

of their Bishop and profaned the sanctuary. The 
answer was, a decree that their churches should be surrendered to 
the Arian clergy. A mob of pagans and apostates enforced the 
demand by a savage onslaught upon the Csesarean Church, in 
which people of both sexes were barbarously maltreated, while 
the sacred edifice was pillaged with every circumstance of sac- 
rilegious riot. This was but the prelude to a reign of terror. 
Clergy were beaten, banished, robbed ; virgins were given up 
to be teased and scratched and torn by Arian women ; citizens 
who remonstrated were answered with the scourge ; some were 
put to death, some sent to the mines : in the midst of all which 
George the Cappadocian, a man of literary tastes but 
ignorant of theology and "savage as a bear or wolf," Cappadocia, 
was consecrated Bishop by an Arian Council at Anti- 
och, and was installed by a band of soldiers in the Evangelic 
See. Under his auspices some ninety of the Bishops of the 
province were banished, deprived, or visited with persecution 
in other forms. The vacant sees were filled, not without 
a spirited resistance, with simoniacal "forerunners of Anti- 
christ." There was violence, in fact, on both sides. George, 

l6 Sozom. v. 30; Socrat. ii. 28; Athanas. Apolog. pro Fuga. 



428 History of the Church. 

on one occasion, was nigh being torn in pieces by a Catholic 
mob. 17 On the other hand, when an attempt was made by the 
faithful to withdraw from his communion and hold separate ser- 
vices, the Duke Sebastian fell upon them, as they were assem- 
bled in a cemetery outside the city, and with fire and sword 
and scourge endeavored to force them into conformity. 

Such was the rule of Arianism in Alexandria and other 
cities : a miserable time, to give an idea of which the copious 
Reign of details furnished by the ancients are unnecessary ; for, 
unhappily, such is human nature and human history, 
that when we have ascertained a willingness to persecute, on 
the part of any faction, with full power to do so, the rest may 
be safely left to the imagination of the reader. 

But persecution of the Catholics was hardly enough to 
satiate the evil spirit of the times. The Arian factions could 
Avian n °t refrain from turning their weapons upon one 
Quarrels. ano ther. That blasphemous creed concocted at Sir- 
mium and afterwards adopted at Antioch, which Hosius had 
been forced to sign, anathematized the Homoiousians or Semi- 
arians as well as the Catholics. The Semiarians, in turn, held a 
Aneyra, council at Ancyra, headed by Basil the Bishop of that 
a.d. 358. see . an( j conc |, emnec i the grosser errors of the other 

sects. Hence a better understanding, for a time at least, be- 
tween the Eastern and Western Bishops. Men like Basil of 
Ancyra or Cyril of Jerusalem were found to mean much the 
same as Hilary of Poitiers or as S. Athanasius. Even the 
Emperor, for a moment, was drawn into the reaction. He 
denounced the "atheist" Aetius, with his followers Eunomius 
and Eudoxius. He was led almost to the point of 

A General 

Council calling a Council, truly ecumenical : but just at that 

called for. . . 

point the subtle Acacians crept into his favor ; and, in- 
stead of one, two Synods were assembled, the one at Ariminum, 
a place convenient for the West, and the other, a sort of coun- 
terpoise, at Seleucia in the East. 18 

When these Synods met, Ariminum was quite orthodox, and 
T 7Sozom. iv. 10. l8 Sozom. iv. 17, 18, 19, 22-24. 



Constantius, Avian Persecutions. 429 

its four hundred Bishops pronounced with considerable unanim- 
ity in favor of an acknowledgment of the Nicene 

m Council of 

Creed. With equal unanimity they refused to accept Ariminum, 

A.D. 359-360. 

the Kata panta homoion, an artful formulary, unob- 
jectionable except for its omissions, which had received the 
approbation of Constantius, and which, from its exact mention 
of the consulship and day of its issue, went under the name of 
the Dated Creed. This much being settled, the Council sent a 
Commission of ten to Constantius, with a request that their acts 
might be sanctioned and themselves permitted to return to their 
sees. The Emperor received them coldly. He had other business 
on hand. He was about to set out, he said, for a campaign in 
Persia; and the Council might await his return to Hadrianople. 
At Seleucia, the meanwhile, the Semiarian majority had 
adopted the Creed of Antioch, called that of the Dedi- 

Seleucia. 

cation, against the protest of the Acacian party. They 

also sent deputies to Constantius, to inform him of their decision. 

But the Acacians had already got the ear of the fickle court, 
After sundry negotiations, during which the Bishops were given 
plainly to understand that their return to their sees Homaan 
depended upon compliance with the Emperor's will, a Trium P h - 
Homoean Symbol was once more presented to the Ariminian pre- 
lates ; one or two anathemas were added to give it an appearance 
of condemning Arius ; finally, it was subscribed by the Council 
with seeming demonstrations of joy and of confidence in its or- 
thodoxy. It is possible that a few of the Bishops were really de- 
ceived. The rest managed in some measure to deceive themselves. 

A like course was pursued towards the Semiarians at Seleu- 
cia, with the same result. It seemed a universal lapse ; which, 
though almost immediately repented of by the Bish- General 
ops and repudiated by the people, showed how com- la ^ se ' 

pletely the Church was demoralized, and how little was required 
(humanly speaking) to make it, like the old heathenism, a mere 
instrument of state — a mere echo of the voice of arbitrary power. 

But the lapse of the Church proved the downfall of the 
heresy before which it stumbled. S. Athanasius, in his retire- 



43° History of the Church. 

ment, foresaw this result and predicted a swift retreat, on the 
Defeat in P ar t of the great body of moderate men, in the direc- 
tory ' tion of one or other of two positions. The orthodox 
in heart 19 would find their way clear to a right confession : the 
real heretics would slide from bad to worse. A few years 
showed the truth of his prediction. Constantius took 

Retreat in 

twodirec- the downward course, allowing Eudoxius, a man 

tions. ° 7 

noted for the coarseness and profanity of his "athe- 
ism," to be enthroned in the great see of Constantinople, while 
Euzoius, the old comrade of Arius, was elevated to the same 
honor in Antioch. By the latter of these two the Emperor was 
baptized before his death, and probably died a strict Arian. On 
the other hand, when the world found itself Arian, it groaned 
as well as marvelled at the strange result. 20 There was a universal 
feeling of grief and shame. Liberius of Rome availed himself of 
the opportunity to redeem his credit. Hilary of Poitiers and 
„ . , , not a few others, some known as Confessors of the Faith 

Revival of 

zeal for and some who had ranked hitherto among the time- 

Orthodoxy. . ° 

servers, came out with fervent zeal against all evasions, 
and labored to restore the Homoousion. In the East, the Semi- 
arians were spurred to the same course by Acacian persecutions, 
and by the rapid growth in court-favor of the extreme Aetians. 
Such in a general way was the drift of things, when Con- 
stantius, still on the flood-tide of life and fortune, heard of a 

revolt in the West, in which Tulian had been forced to 

Death of J 

Constan- accept the imperial title ; felt in that event a premon- 

tius. 

itory symptom of his own approaching end ; was dis- 
tracted for awhile by conflicting counsels ; finally took to his 
bed in a raging fever ; and after a tedious death-struggle left the 
Empire in the hands of the ablest and most politic of all the 
opponents of Christianity. 

*9 A distinction which Athanasius kept carefully in view ; for he knew 
that no word could express the truth with absolute precision, and that men 
might honestly object to the term Homoousion without denying the doctrine it 
was meant to convey. 

20 " Ingemuit totus orbis et Arianum se esse miratus est." S. Jerome. 



Times of Julian the Apostate, 431 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TIMES OF JULIAN THE APOSTATE. 

In the course of Church History cases continually occur of the 
progress from Philosophy to Christian faith. Julian 1 was an 
instance of a passage in the opposite direction. Res- 
cued at seven years of age from the massacre of the f rom 

J & Chris- 

Flavian family ; brought up in seclusion under the tianity to 

J ' to r Philosophy. 

cold and watchful eye of a jealous tyrant ; susceptible 
in his feelings ; proud, vain, enthusiastic, eager for fame ; capa- 
ble of achieving distinction in whatever he undertook, yet con- 
demned to the society of books and dreams ; above all, know- 
ing Christianity only as he saw it in the hypocrisies and cabals 
of a detested court : it is not to be wondered at that he 
turned from the present to the past ; that he exchanged a pain- 
ful and perplexing reality, such as court Christianity at that 
time presented, for an ideal, visionary indeed, yet easily asso- 
ciated in his mind with all the glories and amenites of the most 
brilliant page of the history of human progress. 

Nor was there much to prevent such a bias, in the kind of 
care bestowed upon his religious education. The eunuch Mar- 
donius, the first and ablest of his masters, taught him 

' ' & Julian's 

how to walk with downcast eyes, to despise all sports, early 

, . . Training. 

to read and meditate, to repress with monastic rigor 

all show of human affections. 2 Such a course of training might 

1 Abundant materials for a life of Julian, from Ammianus, Libanius ; 
Eunapius, Julian's Letters, Greg. Nazianzen, Basil, Chrysostom, the Church 
Historians, etc., are brought together by Tillemont. Hist, des E?np. torn. iv. ; 
and in the Memoires, etc., torn. vii. 

2 In later life he prided himself on this philosophic calm : " A philos- 
opher," he said, " ought not even to breathe, if he could help it." 



43 2 History of the Church. 

make a saint, but it was equally well adapted to mar a Chris- 
tian. For awhile it seemed to be attended with the former 
effect. The early youth of Julian was sober, studious, and de- 
vout : he was a regular communicant, a candidate for the sacred 
Ministry, and even a Reader, for awhile, in the Church of 
Nicomedia. 

But, as time rolled on, his inquisitive genius, with the 
wretched uncertainty of his life and fortunes, brought him im- 
Later der the spell of the philosophy of the day; and philos- 
studzes. ophy soon introduced him to its next-door neighbor, 
theurgy. He became intimate with sophists, astrologers, and 
professors of divination : especially with one Maximus, an Ephe- 
sian, 3 the most learned in signs and portents of all his contem- 
poraries. 

At Athens, the stronghold of intellectual pride, where he 
studied about the twenty-fourth year of his life, the spell was 
His Abode probably completed. There he enjoyed the " delici- 
at Athens. Qus VSiYi \^y^ as one f t h e Fathers called it, of familiar 

intercourse with men who reigned as emperors in the realm 
of thought. There he was initiated into the Eleusinian Mys- 
Grt&ry teries. Gregory Nazianzen saw him often in those 
and Basil <j a y S . as a ] so Basil, called the Great, upon whom was 
soon to fall the mantle and the spirit of the great Athanasius. 
With the latter of these he seems to have been on friendly 
terms. The former, 4 more sensitive to evil, avoided his society ; 
for he saw in him, he thought, a mind unhinged, an uncertain 
temper, a soul ill at ease, and at variance with itself. Indeed, 
if we are to credit the picture drawn by Nazianzen, Julian at 
Mental this time must not only have reached the turning-point 
Conflict. Q f ^ f a {- Cj b U f- mus t have passed it with no little suf- 
fering to himself: in his disordered gait, his feverish eye, his 

3 An extant poem of this quack, De Electionibus, reveals the auspicious 
moment for all undertakings : for travelling, marrying, taking medicine, run- 
ning away from one's master or catching runaways, stealing or recovering 
stolen goods, etc. Fabric. Bibliothec. Gr<zc. lib. v. cap. 25. 

4 S. Greg. Naz. Orat. iv. 25. 



Times of Julian the Apostate. 43 3 

tongue venomous and sarcastic by fits and starts, his abrupt and 
imperious yet agitated manner, these were all the outward 
marks of spiritual anguish — of a desperate and secret intellectual 
struggle. 

The contest resulted, not in an apostasy to vulgar paganism, 
but in the adoption of a visionary scheme in which the Platonic 
philosophy, 3 the precepts of the Gospel, and the mir- y u iian J s 
acle-mongering of theurgic science, were to be en- IdeaL 

grafted upon the stock of the old mythology ; while the whole 
was to blossom and bear "fruit not its own," by virtue of a 
mystical interpretation. 

Julian is said to have been confirmed in his change by the 
artful prophecies of Maximus, or of other professors of super- 
natural lore. 6 There was much in his actual life to Favors 0/ 
make him an easy victim to such pretenders. Gallus, ortune. 
his elder brother, after a short reign as Caesar in the provinces 
of the East, had been put to death .for his cruelty, vanity, and 
ambition ; and the one life that remained to excite the jealousy 
of Constantius was well known to hang in an even balance. 
*he magicians promised him safety and empire : the Empress 
Eusebia secured it for him. By her intercession and by a 
strange infatuation on the Emperor's part, he was sent to Gaul 
in the capacity of Caesar. There, anxious to avoid his broth- 
er's fate, he dissembled his religion, refrained from every act 
that might excite suspicion, and aimed only at a moderate, just, 
and vigorous discharge of his princely duties. But to hit such 
a mark was to secure without difficulty a more splendid prize. 

5 " With Porphyry and Iamblichus it (the Alexandrian school) becomes a 
sort of Church, and disputes with Christianity the empire of the world. Chris- 
tianity had ascended the throne in the person of Constantine : Neoplatonism 
dethrones it and usurps its place in the person of Julian the Apostate. But 
now mark the difference. In losing Constantine, Christianity lost nothing of 

its real power In losing Julian, Neoplatonism lost its power, political 

and religious." Lewes, Biograph. Hist, of Philos. Epoch ix. chap. ii. 

6 Libanius (Orat. v.) says that all the pagans, the diviners especially, 
were secretly sacrificing in his behalf. 

19 



434 History of the Church. 

The army greeted with acclamations a merit unknown to them 
of late, and forced upon Julian the title of Augustus. A col- 
lision with Constantius would naturally follow. But, by an- 
„ . other of those sudden turns, which coming as they 

He oerotnes ... 

sol" did at critical moments of his life seemed to point 

Emperor. . , r 

Julian out as the favorite of the gods, the last obstacle 
disappeared from the path of the young hero ; 7 and the vision 
of an universal Empire, consolidated, restored, and illustrated 
with the glories of polytheistic worship, assumed shape and 
consistency in his fervid imagination, and seemed settling into 
the proportions of an accomplished fact. 

Accordingly he took possession of Constantinople ; where, 
having purged himself of his baptism by the dread rites of the 
Taurobolia, 8 and having sacrificed in the great Church to an 
He devotes image of Fortune, he stood before the world, not an 
■ msel f- Emperor merely, but a sceptred sorcerer : a prince 
armed with all powers, material and spiritual, 9 and consecrating 
all to the reform of the Roman State, to the establishment of 
idolatry, and especially to open warfare against the reign of the 
detested Galilean. 

Reform began with the Palace, but was rapidly extended 
into all departments. The parasites of Constantius were swerA 
Measures away : expenses were curtailed with military rigor ; 

of Reform. ^ Q ^^ ^ ^j. ^[q^^^ Q f g tate wn ich CdlStan • 

tine had created or unduly expanded, was reduced to more 
modest and more serviceable proportions. 

7 This was predicted by the haruspices : Julian also saw it in a dream. 
Zosim. ii. ; Zonar. iii. 

8 A baptism in the blood of bulls. 

9 The eulogists of Julian dwell much on this. Libanius (Oral, x.) de- 
clares that he had no use for councils of war, or other deliberative assemblies, 
for his art could show him everything supernaturally. Eunapius (quoted in 
Milman's notes to Gibbon) speaks of him as one " who with a mind equal to 
the Divinity .... held commerce with immaterial beings while yet in the 
material body : who condescended to rule because a ruler was necessary to 
the welfare of mankind." 



Times of Julian the Apostate. 435 

Such measures might have proved acceptable to the public, 
had the Emperor been able to fill with credit the vacancies cre- 
ated by his sweeping reforms. But the material could 
not be found. Idolatry had no gift to profit by ad- of the 
versity : the half century that had elapsed since its 
first overthrow had raised up to it no heroes, no martyrs, no 
spirit of self-devotion. The consequence was, that when Julian 
called for men to cooperate with him in the cause of the fallen 
gods, the summons was answered only by troops of quacks. 
The Court 10 became a den of sophists, rhetoricians, astrologers, 
magicians : and even of these classes the more prudent kept 
aloof, 11 so little confidence was felt in the projected restora- 
tion. 

Better hopes were inspired by his honest and in the main 
successful efforts to reduce the burden of taxation under which 
the world groaned; by his zeal for impartial justice; Acts of 
by his righteous severity towards spies and informers ; Justice. 
and finally by his promise of universal toleration. For he 
recalled the numerous exiles of the previous reign and put all 
Christian sects upon an equal footing. He hoped, in Pretended 
so doing, to see the Church perish by its*own dissen- Toleratwn - 
sions ; 12 but, the event proving quite otherwise, it was not long 
before he began to connive at persecution, and even in some 
cases to set the example himself. 

He revoked the honors and immunities of the Christian 
Clergy, 13 and deprived them of all revenues accruing from the 
State. The Laity were forbidden to hold office, to 

... i-i Severities. 

practise as advocates or physicians, or to teach in the 
public schools Their children were excluded from a classical 
education. Fines were laid on those who refused to sacrifice. 
The destroyers of idol-temples in the preceding reign were 

10 The heathen historian complains of this. Ammian. Marcell. xxii. xxiii. 

11 Among others Chrysanthius, who not only declined to go to Court, but 
being appointed High Priest of Lydia kept on good terms with the Christians. 
See Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. Julien, art. xiii. 

12 Ammian. xxii. 5. ^Sozom. v.; Socrat. iii. ; Theod. iii. 



43 6 History of the Church. 

obliged to make good the damage done, or to suffer the pains 
Mark o/ of insolvent debtors. A venerable Arian Bishop, 

Arethusa. jy^ Qf Arethusa> who ha( J sayed J u }i an ' s Hf e at t h e 

time of the massacre of the Flavian family, was one of the vic- 
tims of this enactment : he was stripped, scourged, anointed 
with honey, and hung up in the hot sun to be stung by flies. 
For a similar offence, Caesarea of Cappadocia was expunged 
George the from the list of cities. George, the infamous intruder 

into the See of Alexandria, was seized and torn in 
pieces by an infuriated mob. He had merited death by his 
vile rapacity, but provoked it by insults upon the heathen tem- 
ples. 14 There were similar acts of violence, and perhaps of 
retaliation, in the cities of Syria and Palestine : all of which, 
however, the Emperor excused, dismissing the complaints of 
the sufferers with the sneer, that patience under injuries was a 
precept of their religion. "It has always been our wish," he 

said, 15 " to treat the Galilgeans with humanity, and 
christians not to force them into any act against their relig- 

of Edessa. . . & 

ion. . . . But, to aid them in the practice of their 
admirable law and to facilitate their entrance into the kingdom 
of Heaven, we have ordered that their Church be relieved of 
its property, the money to be distributed among the soldiers, 
the lands to be attached to the imperial domain : that poverty 
may teach them a lesson of discretion, and may prevent their 
losing that heavenly kingdom." Such was his decree against 
the Arians of Edessa who had ventured to maltreat the Valen- 
tinians : and in the same spirit he chastised the Christian sects 
in general, scourging them as it were with thorns of their own 
planting, driving them into pits which they had dug for others. 
In the case of S. Athanasius, he had no such excuse of 

"poetic justice," but came out without disguise as a 

A thanasius , _,. . 1 . .. .. n 1 , 

again persecutor. tb lhe bamt, like others, had returned to 

his See. The heathen complained : the Catholics, 

speaking in the name of the city, sent to the Emperor a 

I4 Socrat. iii. 2, 3. *s Epistol. xliii. l6 Julian. Epistol. vi. xxvi. Ii. 



Times of ^Julian the Apostate. 43 7 

counter-petition. Julian, in his answer, sneered at their pre- 
sumption, ridiculed their religion, glorified the heathen gods, 
and gave orders that "the knave" who tickled their "itching 
ears," the "meddling mannikin " who gloried in risking his 
life, the miscreant who had "dared to baptize noble Greek 
women," should be driven without delay from Alexandria and 
Egypt. 

This growing inclination towards measures of severity was 
increased by certain incidents that occurred in An- Antiock, 
tioch, where the Emperor abode for awhile previ- A,D " 3<52 ' 
ous to his departure for the Persian war. 

The Grove of Daphne, 17 in the neighborhood of that city, 
had been famous in pagan times as a Paradise of beauty and a 
Sodom of iniquity: a place where, surrounded by roof- Grove of 
like shades of primeval cypresses, with hills laurel- a * ne ' 
crowned and secluded valleys and springs pouring their spark- 
ling treasures into a thousand channels, the worship of Apollo 
had sanctified the frivolity of a pleasure-loving people, and had 
spread a mystic veil over scenes of unblushing voluptuousness 
and audacious crime. On the triumph of the Cross it had been 
cleansed, in some measure, of its abominations. Gallus, Julian's 
elder brother, had caused the remains of S. Babylas to Removal of 
be transported thither ; and a magnificent Christian 6 ' Ba y 
church, with a noble cemetery, stood confronting and insulting 
the more ancient shrine. When Julian came to Antioch 18 and 
visited the old temple, he was mortified to find it almost for- 
saken : a starveling priest was sacrificing a goose for lack of a 
better victim ; the famous oracle was dumb, "because of the 
vicinity of dead men's remains." Such a disgrace could not be 
tolerated. The Christians were commanded to remove their 
relics. They obeyed the order and converted it into a triumph. 
As the body of the Saint was solemnly translated to the city, 
the ears of the Emperor were saluted with a thundering defiance, 
the precentor singing first and the multitude responding, " Con- 

*7 Sozom. v. 19. l8 Theod. iii. io, n, etc.; Sozom. v. 19, 20. 



43 8 History of the Church. 

founded be all they that worship carved images and that delight 
in vain gods." This could not but be followed by mutual 
exasperation. The Antiocheans would sing — especially the 
women. The Emperor, in spite of the sober counsels of more 
experienced advisers, was bent on putting a stop to their 
Cruel untimely mirth. Theodore, a young Christian, was 

Measures, tortured on the rack. 19 He sang more heartily than 
ever while the torment was going on; for, though "he felt 
the points of the nails a little, yet a young man stood by him 
(invisible to others) and wiped the sweat from his face and 
refreshed him with water." On the other hand, the Daphnian 
Apollo and his temple were set on fire by lightning, as was 
commonly reported, or, as the Emperor chose to believe, 20 by a 
Christian incendiary. Hence a series of atrocious and vin- 
dictive measures ; in which Julian, losing his temper, awakened 
the martyr spirit in some and the mocking spirit in others, so 
that the very heathen soon began to regard him with feelings of 
aversion. 

Still, as a general rule, Julian was averse to making martyrs, 

and preferred that policy of mingled flattery and sarcasm, with 

occasional flashes of apparent magnanimity, which 

Perse- would lead unstable Christians to fall of themselves. 

ctttion. ... . .. 

From his early training he was intimately acquainted 
with the Scriptures, and with all the variations of Christian 
sects. He availed himself of this knowledge with pungent 
wit ; and many who might have stood under the scourge or 
rack were easily overthrown by a well-aimed sneer. Largesses 
and bribes were effectual with others. The old trick was re- 
vived, of sprinkling the soldiers' rations with lustral water, or 
exposing in the shambles meats offered to idols. Thus apostates 
were numerous in the court and camp. On the other hand, 
there were some who kept their places in both, by virtue of 
their blameless and consistent conduct : a tyrant may value 

J 9 Sozom. v. 20. 

20 Ammian. (xxii. 13) treats this as an unfounded rumor. Even the 
priests of the temple did not profess to knozv the origin of the fire. 



Times of Julian the Apostate. 439 

renegades as trophies of his skill, but he cannot trust to them 
exclusively as servants. 

His design to restore the splendor of the old idol-worship 
he seems to have first intimated in a letter to the Athenians, 
written not long before the death of Constantius. idolatry 
The carrying out of the intention was by no means 
easy. By a stroke of the pen he could transfer to the pagan 
priesthood the privileges and immunities of the Christian 
Clergy. But beyond this point everything was in a The p r i eits 
tangle of conflicting views. The sacerdotal families lukewarm - 
were at feud among themselves; nor were they disposed to 
hearken graciously to the Christian-like homilies, with which 
their Sovereign Pontiff saw fit to edify them, on the virtues of 
unity, charity, and mutual forbearance. Still less were they 
inclined to lead disciplined lives, after the fashion of the hated 
Galileans, 21 or to set an example of humility and chastity, or to 
show their faith by deeds of beneficence to the poor. For the 
Emperor desired the fruits of Christianity, though he abhorred 
the tree : the priests, it was found, had no taste for either. In 
the same way, the populace valued paganism as min- Tke People 
istering to their vices ; but the lewd and bloody sports Sattrtcal - 
of the circus were an abomination to the disciple of Plato and 
Mardonius, and he felt himself bound to set his face against 
them. 82 In the absence of such treats, people could not but 
laugh at the strange pomps of the revived sacrifices. Heca- 
tombs of oxen seemed a grand absurdity. The imperial sacri- 
ficer was nicknamed the Butcher ; the symbol on his coins, a 
bull supine upon an altar, was held to mean " the world turned 
upside down;" while his long straggling beard, his uncomely 
visage, his insignificant figure and pretentious airs, all came 
in for a share of the popular ill -humor. With a pen steeped in 
gall the Emperor retorted, now upon the haters of beards, now 
upon the enemies of the immortal gods. The lively Antio- 

21 See Julian's letter to Arsacius the high-priest of Galatia Sozom. v. 16. 

22 Zosimus attributes all the Emperor's troubles in Antioch to the severity 
of his manners. 



44° History of the Church. 

cheans were pilloried in a satire entitled Misopogon. The hated 
"Galileans," as he called the Christians, were visited 

Julian\ , 

Literary more than once with a similar rebuke. But in con- 

EJforts. i., 

tests of this kind victory inclines to numbers rather 
than to wit; and it must soon have become obvious to the 
Emperor himself, that whatever might be his success against 
Christianity, the attempt to replace it by a spiritual paganism 
could end in nothing else than a mortifying failure. 

In fact, heathenism could exist only as a superstition : as a 
religion it was decayed and full of rents j to touch it was to 
Causeof increase the rents in it; and the rents were made infi- 
Faiiure. nitely worse, when patched with the new cloth of an 
ideal, half Christian, half Platonic, and wholly beyond the 
reach of popular apprehension. 

This truth was brought home to the Emperor in a more seri- 
ous way by the issue of his attempt to restore Judaism. It was 
not inconsistent with polytheistic notions, that the 

A t tempt to L J 

restore God of the Hebrews should be worshipped in the 

Judaism. 

land of Judaea ; 23 and it was natural that Julian should 
desire to have his own name connected 24 with so magnificent a 
fane and so splendid a ceremonial, as the Jews with their great 
wealth and zeal were capable of erecting. Hatred of the Gos- 
pel added force to this desire. To rebuild the Temple was to 
falsify, it was thought, the predictions of our Saviour. To 
reestablish the Law was to sap Christianity at its fountain- 
head. Accordingly, the Jews were incited to engage in the 

undertaking. Aid was freely given from the public 
Prepara- treasury ; skilled workmen were brought together ; 

tions. . 

there were rich offerings in profusion, silver mattocks, 
silver trowels, gold, purples, and precious stones ; delicate 
women came to work in their silks and jewels ; finally, the 
accomplished Alypius, a bosom friend of the Emperor's and a 
distinguished officer of the empire, was specially intrusted with 
the superintendence of the work. 

2 3 Julian, Epistol. xxv. 2 4Ammian. xxiii. I. 



Times of Julian the Apostate.^ 441 

The defeat that ensued was signal and overwhelming beyond 
all precedent. Trenches dug by day were filled up by night. 
When a part of the wall was built, an earthquake over- signal 
threw it. A fiery eruption from the vaults of the old Defeat. 
Temple scattered death and panic among the workmen and 
consumed their tools. The air was filled with tempests and 
meteoric splendors : a great cross was seen enclosed in a circle, 
and luminous figures of a like character seemed to settle on the 
persons and garments of the beholders. In short, "though 
Alypius set himself resolutely to accomplish the work, and was 
assisted therein by the Governor of the Province, the place 
soon became inaccessible to the scorched and blasted work- 
men, and the obstinacy of the elements compelled him to 
desist." 25 

Had Julian lived longer, the enterprise possibly might have 
been renewed. But, when the news of this defeat invasion 
reached him, his evil genius had already incited him °f Persia - 
to an undertaking that proved in its issue still more disastrous, 
— the invasion of the Kingdom of Persia. 

This powerful monarchy, the inveterate rival and enemy of 
Rome, had received a severe check in the reign of Diocletian ; 
had been conciliated by treaties honorable to both cause of 
parties under the politic administration of Constan- the War ' 
tine ; but finally, encouraged by the weakness of Constantius 
and led on by the valor of Sapor the long-lived king, 25 had 
inflicted not a few disgraces upon the Roman arms. 

2 5 Ammianus (the heathen historian) bears witness to the repeated fiery 
eruptions, and to the consequent defeat of the earnest efforts of Alypius 
(xxiii. 1). The other circumstances are mentioned by Christian writers, for an 
analysis of whose testimony, with a complete answer to the objections of 
Basnage, see Warburton's Julian. This writer shows that an earthquake 
(with its usual accompaniments) might have produced all the alleged phe- 
nomena. Others account for them by the gases and fixed air in the vaults 
of the old Temple. — See Milman's Notes to Gibbon. The two theories, by the 
way, are as old as Sozomen. Hist. v. 22. 

26 This valiant monarch had the singular honor of being crowned before 
he was born. See Gibbon's Decline, etc., chap, xviii. 

19* 



44 2 History of the Church. 

Julian only added to the number of these reverses. Led on 

by Fortune, the goddess of his first devotions, and emulating 

the course of the Macedonian conqueror, he crossed 

Death of M » 

juiian s the Tigris, fell by a strange infatuation into a snare 
prepared by the enemy, and finally, after a brilliant 
but disastrous victory, perished of a wound received in battle. 
The Christians pointed the moral of his fate by putting into his 
mouth the famous phrase, Galilcee, vicisti / The heathen histo- 
rian represents him 27 as indulging, on his death-bed, in a self- 
complacent harangue upon the innocency of his life, the purity 
of his government, the splendid close of his career, and the 
felicity of a soul beloved of the gods and early disencumbered 
of its mortal body. 

Among heathen and Christians alike there had been a strong 

presentiment of his approaching end. 28 Julian had divined it 

by his theurgic skill : and the Genius of the Empire 

Prophecies J ° ' x 

going twice appearing to him, once the night before he 

be/ore. 

received the purple and once upon the eve of his last 
battle, had on both these occasions assured him of it. Athana- 
sius, in like manner, had said of his career, " It is a little cloud 
and will soon pass over." A similar story is told of a certain 
schoolmaster in Antioch. When Libanius, the great Sophist, 
taunted him with the question, "What is the carpenter's Son 
doing?" he answered promptly and with composure, "He is 
getting ready a coffin." So, on the fatal day : two priests were 
conversing sadly in a boat on the Nile, when of a sudden one 
of them exclaimed, "Julian has been slain this very hour" ; 
Sabbas, a pious monk in Syria, learned the same on his knees ; 
Didymus, the Alexandrian scholar, saw it in a dream and sent 

2 ? Gibbon seldom lays himself open to ridicule : yet there is something 
ludicrous in the gravity with which he expresses his "silent contempt" for 
the Christian story, while he gives in full the rhetorical harangue recorded by 
Ammianus. He also commits himself to the wild story that the soldiers 
elected Jovian because they mistook his name for that of Julian. 

28 Theod. iii. 23, 24; Sozom. vi. 2; Ammian. xxv. 2; Tillemont, Hist, 
des Emp. torn. iv. p. 1015. 



Times of Julian the Apostate. 443 

word of it to S. Athanasius ; an officer of the army had a sim- 
ilar vision : in all which stories, as in the parallel Their 
anecdotes from the heathen side, we have signs of the Meamn s- 
deep and earnest feeling with which Julian's career had been 
commonly regarded. It was evidently looked upon as a spirit- 
ual conflict, a crisis and an issue, a "war in heaven," as it 
were, in which good angels and bad, the powers of light and 
of darkness, might be expected to take a more than ordinary 
part. 

Upon Jovian, a Christian confessor and a rude, blunt soldier, 
elected by the military on the fatal field, devolved the ungrate- 
ful task of extricating the army from impending ruin. j ov i an 
The Persians, unwilling to combat with despair, AD - 3 6 3- 
granted him the boon of an ignominious peace. 29 He pro- 
ceeded immediately to restore Christianity. The Labarum was 
once more raised in the van of the army. 30 The Clergy re- 
covered their former state. Even the Nicene Creed, so long 
depressed, was elevated at once to the post of honor ; for the 
Emperor, though by no means an adept in theologic lore, had 
a gift to discern the merits of S. Athanasius, and to receive from 
his lips the measure of Imperial faith. Jovian died after a 
reign of eight months only : but the army again showed its 
preference for a Christian head, by conferring the 

r . . . to Valentin- 

purple on Valentmian. He also inclined to the or- /«», Vaiens, 
thodox side. His brother Valens, however, whom he 
adopted as colleague in the empire and set over the East, was a 
violent Arian and a bitter persecutor. 

"9 He had to part with Nisibis (which James the Bishop had defended 
with his prayers, Theod. ii. 30) and with five provinces : the Roman Ter- 
minus began to retire. 

3° Julian had substituted the old standard, S. P. Q. R. 



444 History of the Church, 



CHAPTER IX. 

TIMES OF VALENS: SECTS AND SCHISMS. 

It has been intimated, in the preceding chapter, that the return 
of the exiles under Julian was favorable on the whole to the 
Prospect Catholic cause. In face of a common foe there was a 
0/ Peace, disposition, on the part of good men at least, to forget 
past quarrels, to avoid new grounds of difference, and to close up 
if possible the Church's broken ranks. 

The chief exception to this rule was among the Christians 
of North Africa. The Donatists in that region 1 were a sect 
African that lived on turbulence : to persecute or be perse- 
cuted was a necessity of their existence. The Em- 
peror Constans had tried to win them to unity by sending two 
commissioners or peace-makers, 2 armed with liberal donations 
to the suffering poor; but the leaders of the faction, regarding 
his benevolence as a bribe, roused their rustic militia, the Cir- 
cumcellions to such a pitch of frenzy, that with their war-cry, 
Deo landes, and with their war-clubs, called Israels, they began a 
ruthless massacre of the upper classes of society, and 
subdzied, it required no little effort on the part of the Roman 
power to repress them. Repressed they were, however, 
after multitudes had been slaughtered or had slain themselves. 3 
With the method of peace-making adopted in this instance 
"the Church had nothing to do, either in wish, word or deed " : 4 

1 See Book III. chap. iy. of this History. 

2 Operator es unitatis. 

3 The Circumcellions threw themselves from cliffs, etc., as a kind of mar- 
tyrdom. S. O at. De Schism. Donat. iii. 4. . 

4 Optatus iroves that the Donatists provoked persecution ; that they 
merely suffers their deserts as evil-doers ; and that Catholics had no part in 



Times of Valens : Sects and Schisms. 445 

but she was not the less glad to be delivered from a sect which 
armed debtors against their creditors and slaves against their 
masters, and made simple folk believe that the Catholics had 
set up idols upon their Altars. 5 The deliverance, moreover, 
seemed to be complete. " Schism was at an end, and even the 
pagans refrained from their sacrilegious rites : the devil moaned 
in his temples, the Donatists in foreign parts." 

Unity thus obtained could not but prove precarious. The 
accession of Julian opened the doors of the idol-temples and 
brought back the Donatists. Hosts of embittered Donatists 
zealots poured in from the remoter districts and restor ed. 
swarmed in every town. The Catholics shrank at once into a 
trembling minority. Robbed of their churches and cemeteries, 
their altars and altar-plate, their sacred books, veils, Their 

palls, nay of their very Christian name — for their bap- Vl ° lence > 
tism was called a nullity and their prayers a profanation : they 
could hardly extort an Ave from their churlish adversaries, 6 but 
were saluted instead with a sharp "Turn ye, turn ye — Be Chris- 
tians — Save your souls," or other exhortations to a like startling 
effect. 7 By such persecution households were divided, and the 
Church was thrown into a state of miserable depression. 

But in other parts of the world the work of reconciliation 
was at least begun. S. Athanasius, returning to his See upon 
the death of George, with Eusebius of Vercellae and 

. m Council at 

other exiles, 8 held a Council at Alexandria; in which a lexandria, 

A.D. 362. 

it was determined that naught should be required of 
converts to Church unity, save to confess the Nicene Faith and 
abjure the Arian and other heresies. 

the severities against them. He challenges them to name one Deacon, Priest 
or Bishop, who had instigated or sanctioned the use of force (ii. 14). Yet 
Milman, by a gross misconception of Optat. iii. 6, tries to make it appear that 
the Catholics not only sanctioned, but " proudly vindicated their barbarities." 
Hist, of Christ. B. III. chap. i. towards the end. 

s Donatist calumnies were almost without number. Optat. passim. 

6 Optatus (iv. 5) in the spirit of true charity argues that Donatists and 
Catholics are brethren ; and pleads with the former for fraternal kindness. 

7 Optat. iii. II. 8 Socrat. iii. 5-7, 9. 



446 History of the Church. 

Armed with this wise and charitable decree, Eusebius repaired 
to Antioch, to allay the dissensions which had continued to 
Schism in prevail there ever since the deposition of Eustathius. 9 

To do so seemed easy, for Eustathius was dead, and 
Meletius, the then incumbent, had proved his orthodoxy by a 
singularly bold and unequivocal confession. 10 But the Eusta- 

thians were sour and impracticable; and Lucifer of 
a " d ,. Cagliari, another returned exile, had made them still 

Paulinus. 

worse by ordaining for them a Bishop of the name of 
Paulinus. Hence a cankerous feud, the irritation of which 
extended East and West to all parts of the Church." Lucifer 
The wa s rebuked by Eusebius for his untimely interference. 

ucifenans. -g^ ^. g on jy se rved to increase the difficulty. He 
proudly held aloof from all efforts at conciliation, and became 
leader of a small sect known as the Luciferians. 

The West was more ripe for the healing ministry of Eusebius. 
Liberius of Rome concurred in the decrees of Alexandria; and 
The West Hilary of Poitiers, 12 with other kindred spirits, set up 
pacified. t ^ e light of truth and dispelled the mists of contro- 
versy in the Churches of Illyricum, Italy, and Gaul. Those who 
had swallowed the baits of Constantius at Milan, or had been 
entangled in his nets at the Council of Ariminum, penitently 
acknowledged, or plausibly excused, their error ; and, in spite 
of the opposition of a few hot-heads, were readily received into 
favor. Auxentius of Milan alone held out. But the Emperor 

Valentinian, a cordial hater of Church quarrels, ob- 

A.D. 364. . ' . j 1 1 

taining from him a confession that looked orthodox, 
permitted him to remain in possession of his See ; and, that 
he might remain in quiet, ordered Hilary, his chief accuser, to 
withdraw from the city. 

9Theod. iii. 4, 5; Sozom. v. 13. 

10 Meletius, though appointed by Arian influence, had in his first sermon 
confessed the true Faith : for which he was exiled by Constantius, and came 
back under Julian. Socrat. ii. 44. 

11 Rome and the West took the side of Paulinus : and even S. Athana- 
sius was drawn in the same direction by his sympathy with the Eustathians. 

12 Socrat. iii. 10. 



Times of Valens : Sects and Schisms. 447 

With its own faith established, the West had soon an oppor- 
tunity to confirm the faith of a large number of the Eastern 
brethren. By the leave of Valentinian, 13 certain Semi- „„ 

J Movement 

arian Bishops of Bithynia and Thrace had met at towards 

. . Unity tn 

Lampsacus, condemned the Creed of Ariminum, ap- the East, 

A.D. 364. 

proved the Formulary of Antioch, and reiterated the 
Confession of the Homoiousion. Being persecuted for this by 
the Emperor Valens, they determined to have recourse to the 
alliance of the West. Three deputies were sent to Valentinian 
and to Liberius of Rome. It was earnestly declared that in 
using the word Homoiousion they meant nothing contrary to 
the Creed of Nicaea. They were perfectly willing, therefore, to 
abandon the term. Finally, they drew up a formal mdene 
paper in which all evasions were condemned, and the J^s S 7o\a.d'. 
Faith of the Three Hundred and Eighteen was declared 3<5s - 3<57- 
to be that " which they had held all along, still held, and would 
ever hold thereafter." 14 A Council in Sicily confirmed their decla- 
ration. Another at Tyana pursued the same course. The letter 
which Liberius had written in answer to the paper of the East- 
ern Deputies was commended to the faithful everywhere \ and 
an effort was made to assemble another Synod at Tarsus in 
Cilicia, with a view to the complete and final settlement of all 
questions in dispute. 

Valens interfered ; forbade the proposed Council to assem- 
ble ; and gave a general order for the banishment of all Bishops 
who had been restored to their Sees by the edict of valens 
Julian. This was the beginning of a persecution in inter f eres - 
which the pagans also suffered, many of their philosophers 
being put to death or banished for treasonable divinations. 15 

*3 In answer to their application the Emperor said, " I am only a simple 
layman. Let the priests see to Church affairs, and assemble where they please." 
Sozom. vi. 7. 

*4 Sozom. vi. 10-12. * 

x s Theodoras, a young Secretary at court, consulted the soothsayers as to 
the name of the next Emperor. The letters 0, E, 0, A, turned up. Hence 
a great agitation both in the Eastern and Western courts. Immense num- 



44$ History of the Church. 

Athanasius could plead that he was not one of those restored 
under Julian : on the contrary, when he had returned after the 
death of George, the tyrant had forced "the meddling manni- 
kin," as he called him, to flee in haste from the city. But this 
availed nothing with Valens. The Saint was obliged to hide 
himself again. So strong, however, was the terror 
retires, inspired by his name 10 and so general the conviction 
of his secret power, that the Arians themselves began 
to think better of it, and brought the Emperor over to the same 
opinion. He was soon allowed, therefore, to resume his See, 
and the persecution turned upon other victims. 

The violence of this last effort of Arianism may be estimated 
by the fact that on one occasion, when eighty priests were 
Cruelty o/ deputed to deprecate the Emperor's wrath, they were 
all ordered into exile, with secret instructions from 
the court that the vessel which conveyed them should be set on 
fire. The order was executed, and the priests all perished. 17 
Under such a tyrant the Church fell naturally into new distrac- 
tions, and heresies hitherto latent or harmless were fretted, as it 
were, into a baleful life. A few of the more prominent of these 
may here be noticed. 

First : There were some that sprang from an overstrained 
and feverish orthodoxy. Such was the error of Marcellus and 
Heresies Photinus, who to save the Divinity of the Word sacri- 
^thodox fi ce d the truth of His Personality. 18 In somewhat the 
Slde ' same spirit, the Luciferians and Eustathians made 

schism seem right by using it in the service of a righteous cause. 

bers of philosophers were imprisoned, many were put to death — chiefly on 
information extorted by the rack. Zosim. iv. 13-15; Ammian. xxviii. I; 

xxix. 1—3. 

16 Sozom. vi. 12. x 7 Sozom. vi. 14. 

18 Photinus made "the immanent Word" impersonal: but he avoided 
Patripassianism by distinguishing between the Word and the Son, applying 
the latter term to the incarnate Christ only." Marcellus towards the end of his 
life explained his heresy, but not in a satisfactory way. " S. Athanasius 
neither cleared him, nor harshly condemned him, but smiling seemed to 
think he had cleared himself." S. Epiphan. Op. p. 837, ed. Petav. 



Times of Valens : Sects and Schisms. 44 m 

Athanasius disapproved these extravagances of his friends and 
followers ; but party ties were too strong, and his heart was too 
generous and charitable, to allow him to repudiate the author 
of them. Another warm friend of his, the poet and scholar 
Apollinaris, 19 thought to make sure of the Divinity of 

1 . ° / Apollina- 

Christ by denying to the nature He assumed a rational rian 

Theory. 

soul. The Logos, eternally a Person and eternally 
imbodied, being eternally indeed the Son of Man in Heaven, 
assumed the earthly or psychical part of our nature, and so be- 
came visibly the Son of Man : the heavenly or rational part He 
had no need to assume. Such were some of the heresies that 
sprang from an abuse of logic on the orthodox side. The men- 
tal bias, of which they are exponents, led in the course of the 
next century to a very extensive adoption of the Monophysite 
error. 

Secondly : Of the spawn of Arius, there were many minor 
sects in addition to the three leading schools described , . 

in a previous chapter. Aerius, one of those reformers Sects: 
who attempt to sweep the house without being at the 
pains to light the candle, denied the superiority of Bishops 
over Presbyters, the lawfulness of oblations made for the de- 
parted, and the religious obligation of Fasts and 

. Eunomius. 

Feasts. Eunomius, one of the same sort, taught a 
solifidian doctrine, and introduced the practice of a single 20 
immersion in Baptism, with a discipline quite novel in other re- 
spects. Macedonius denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 21 

T 9 The heresy was condemned in the Council of Alexandria, but without 
mention of the name of Apollinaris. Athanasius also wrote against the 
heresy, but with a like reserve. For an account of Apollinaris, see Soz. vi. 
25-27. 

20 Sozom. vi. 26. In Bagster's ed. of the Ch. Historians the important 
word single is omitted. The common practice in the East was trine im- 
mersion. 

21 For the different theories of "wise men" on this subject see Greg. 
Nazianz. de Spirit. Sanct. Orat. xxxi. 



45 o History of the Church. 

Such an error would necessarily flow from Arian premises ; but, 
Macedo- - as it seemed to open a new and untrodden path, it 
rapidly drew off the remnants of the more obstinate 
Semiarians. 

To errors of this kind may be added the misunderstandings 22 
that arose from the use of the word Hypostasis. As there were 
The Term some who held it to mean Substance, and others, 
Hypostasis. p erson ^ those who spoke of one Hypostasis and those 
who spoke of three might accuse one another respectively of the 
Tritheist, or the Sabellian, heresy. The Council of Nicaea had 
avoided the use of the word, and more recently the pacific 
Synod of Alexandria had endeavored to discourage it. But in 
spite of all efforts it continued to be used, and helped to irritate 
the quarrel 23 between the East and West. 

Thirdly : there were heresies that sprang from superstition : 
others that arose from an enthusiastic protest against offences 
Minor of the times. The Collyridians, an Arabian sect, wor- 
Errors. shipped the blessed Virgin 24 with altars, priestesses, 
processions, and offerings of cakes. The Antidicomarians im- 
pugned her virgin purity. The Massalians, averse to priests 
and sacraments, professed a life of inward and incessant prayer. 23 
The Audians, a hard monastic sect, hated Bishops and rich 
men, and interpreted the Scriptures so grossly as to clothe the 
Supreme Being in a human form. 

In the West the Manichseans were still busy ; and the Pris- 
cillianists, against the earnest protest of S. Martin of Heresies in 
Tours, 26 had to be repressed by the secular arm. They the West - 
gave much trouble in Gaul and Spain. In Rome, Jovinian, 

22 Socrat. iii. 7. 

23 The West spake of one, the East of three: so in the Church of Antioch, 
the Meletians held with the East, the Paulinists with the West. 

2 4 S. Epiphan. Hceres. 58, 59, or 78, 79. 

2 s The access of the Spirit among them was indicated by quakings, con 
vulsions, etc. Theod, iv. 10, 11. 

26 The first infliction of death for heresy — a.d. 384. 



Times of Valens : Sects and Schisms. 45 1 

a Milanese monk, 27 renounced the austerities of his profession 
as unprofitable, held "once in grace" to mean "always in 
grace," declaimed against the prevalent belief with regard to 
the superiority of the virgin life, and adopted the Stoic tenet 
that all sins are equal. 

In short, private judgment ran riot amid the anarchy of 
controversy, so that even S. Epiphanius, 28 after cataloguing the 
queens and concubines of the distracted realm of heresy, 

. .. Vagaries 

found his patience spent ; and was obliged to dismiss without 
a host of the more frivolous extravagances under the 
general head of virgins without number — so countless were the 
vagaries in which the religious world indulged. 

Amid such license of opinion, embittered, not repressed, by 
the strong hand of the civil power, the position of true men 
was uncomfortable in the extreme. To think was to Trials 0/ 
make one's self the butt of calumny or suspicion ; ihe Times - 
and the wolves that muddled the stream were the foremost to 
abuse the lambs that sought it only to slake their thirst. To be 
orthodox was to be called Sabellian, Tritheist, Apollinarian, 
Macedonian. 29 It was a strife in which every man's hand was 

2 7 His movement was quite popular in Rome, where there was a strong 
revulsion of feeling against the austere teachings of S. Jerome. Jovinian was 
condemned in the year 389. 

28 S. Epiphanius, the great authority on heresies, was a man of the highest 
repute for holiness and learning — a type of primitive piety. Born in the 
beginning of the fourth century, he lived till near its close. Learning the 
monastic life in Egypt, he practised it in Palestine where he founded a mon- 
astery, and adorned it by the mild dignity of his episcopal rule in Salamis the 
metropolis of Cyprus. Towards the end of his life he took part in the Ori- 
genistic controversy, siding against Origen. In his great work he makes the 
sixty queens (Canticles vi. 8, 9) to have been sixty generations before Christ, 
the eighty concubines eighty chief heresies, the virgins withotit number (by 
a play upon the word) to be the juvenile vagaries so common in his times, 
and the one Dove, of course, the Church and the true Faith. 

*9 S. Basil complains much on this score. If he cleared himself on one 
side he was immediately attacked on the other. S. Basil. Caes. Epistol. 189. 
So also S. Jerome, Epistol. 15; "Confiteor ut volunt, non placet. Subscribo, 
non credunt," etc. 



45 2 History of the Church. 

against his neighbor; in which men "argued with their teetli 
rather than with their tongues." 

Even the Latin Church was more or less disturbed, partly 

by vile struggles for place and power, partly by the impatience 

of the ultra-orthodox ; and the name of Damasus, 

Pope 

Daviasus, the able successor of Liberius, was stained by barbar- 

A.D. 366. ' J 

ous massacres of the followers of Ursicinus, 30 his com- 
petitor for what was already the rich prize of the See of Rome. 
In the main, however, the West presented a firm front, now 
attracting, now chilling and repelling, the more fervid East. 
s. Jerome, Among those who were attracted, the name of S. 

Jerome is conspicuous at this period. Against "the 
foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines"; amid the word- 
battles of the Hypostases or the more serious questions started 
by Apollinaris ; his impatient and intolerant spirit felt the need 
of a strong voice and strong arm : and such strength he sought 
in "the uncorrupt see," the stronghold of the faith and of the 
authority of S. Peter. 31 Accordingly, Damasus was encouraged 
to take high ground with the East, and increased the difficulties 

at Antioch by siding against Meletius in favor of Pau- 

Schism in . 

Antiock. linus. Both of these Bishops, however, were in exile 

A.D. 378. 

at the time. When they returned, on the death of 
Valens, Meletius proposed that they should occupy together the 
Episcopal chair, 32 and whichever died first the survivor should 
be his successor. But Paulinus would not act without consult- 
ing Damasus, and the friendly proposition seems to have been 
rejected. 

3° Which of the two was canonically elected is still sub lite, though the 
evidence extant favors Damasus. Ammianus attributes the quarrel to the 
pride and luxury in which the Roman Bishops lived — a luxury, he remarks, 
more than imperial. Ammian. xxvii. To the same effect is the famous 
speech of Praetextatus (a pagan of high rank) to Pope Damasus: " Make me 
Bishop of Rome, and I will turn Christian." Tillemont, iii. 2. 

3 1 S. Hieronym. Op. torn. iv. Epistoll. 15, 16, 

3 s The speech of Meletius on this occasion was worthy of the saintly 
character universally attributed to him. Theod. v. 3. 



Times of Valens : Sects and Schisms. 45 3 

It was about four years later that S. Jerome took up his 
abode in Rome, and devoted himself to labors by which the 
power of that see was in the end most wonderfully 

iS". yerome 

strengthened. A Dalmatian by birth, a Syrian monk in Rome, 

. r A.D. 382-38^ 

by education, he was a powerful promoter of the 
ascetic and monastic life. Finding ordinary severities to fail 
in subduing the heat of his nature, he had given much time to 
the study of Hebrew, and was a Biblical scholar and interpreter 
of the highest order. His austerity of character caused him tc 
be hated by the heathen of Rome, and not much beloved by the 
Christians. With the devout and noble women, how- Ascetic 
ever, the Paulas, Fabiolas, Marcellas, he was an oracle octnne. 
and almost an idol, teaching them to adorn the pride of vir- 
ginity with the pride of learning, and encouraging them in 
severities unsuited to the sex or to the state of public opinion. 
Paula, a noble widow, and her daughters Eustochium and Bles- 
illa, were among his disciples. Blesilla, brought to the Death of 
verge of the grave by a fever, adopted a course of Biesiiia. 
fasting which soon put an end to her existence. The Romans 
regarded this as little better than religious suicide ; and, on the 
death of Damasus, his patron, Jerome was obliged to leave 
the city. 

The fruits of asceticism which had proved too sour for 
Roman taste at that time were afterwards matured in the more 
congenial air of the East : in a different state of things, with 
the growth of new wants in the Church, and with the develop- 
ment of monasticism in a form more obviously useful, they 
were found more acceptable to the Western mind, and may be 
counted among the chief elements of the growth of Latin 
Christianity. 



454 History of the Church, 



CHAPTER X. 

S. BASIL AND S. GREGORY. 

Amil the difficulties described in the previous chapter the 
cause of orthodoxy was sustained in the East, first of all by S. 
Athanasius, and after him mainly by S. Basil of Cae- 
of the sarea in Cappadocia; by S. Gregory of Nyssa, his 
brother ; by S. Gregory of Nazianzus, surnamed the 
Theologian, his bosom friend, and by that true knight-errant 
of the faith who went about ordaining Bishops wherever he 
could place them, Eusebius 1 of Samosata. Of these, the two 
friends Basil and Nazianzen are remarkable examples of the 
spirit and temper in which the trials of the age were met. 

Basil was a man of genius and a scholar, among the fore- 
most of the Fathers in eloquence, learning, and devotion to the 
^ Basil cause of Christ. 2 The Emperor Julian, who knew 
and Julian. hj m we \\ at Athens, attempted on his accession to 
draw him to the Court. But his overtures were rejected ; and 
a sharp correspondence ensuing between the two, 3 the Saint was 
in some danger of suffering for his temerity. Indeed it was 
thought the tyrant spared him only as Cyclops spared Ulysses, 
that the pains of death might be embittered by the torture of a 
long suspense. 

In the meanwhile Caesarea, where he labored as a Presbyter, 
a capital of no little importance in Church and State, once the 
c*sa*em home of Gregory Thaumaturgus, and in course of time 
Punished, ^e centre of some fifty suffragan sees, had fallen un- 
der the particular displeasure of Julian, and was paying the pen' 

1 Theod. ii. 32; iv. 14; v. 4. 

2 Sozom. vi. 15-17; Socrat. iv. 26; Theod. iv. 19. 

3 S. Basil. Epistoll. 39-41. 



6". Basil and S. Gregory. 455 

alty of its zeal against idolatry in the forfeiture of its name and 
place as a city, and in heavy fines imposed upon its principal 
inhabitants. 

It was in danger of suffering still more from the excitement 
of an episcopal election. The See being vacant, party spirit 
ran so high that for awhile no choice could be made. 4 

Excitem^ nl 

At length Eusebius, a sober layman, but as vet unbap- of an 

J Election. 

tized, was called to the archiepiscopal chair by an in- 
stinct of the people; and the Bishops of the Province reluc- 
tantly ratified the choice and carried it into effect. Things 
turned out better than might have been expected. Eusebius 
Eusebius proved an earnest and sound-minded pastor. Bishop. 
But from some cause or other, perhaps from the inability of a 
rude hand to handle a tool so finely edged, the Bishop was not 
on good terms with his able Presbyter: there was a Two 

Basil party and a party of Eusebius ; and a bad breach Pities. 
would have ensued, had not Basil retired into the wilderness, 
betaking himself, like Hagar, to the society of good angels and 
good thoughts. 

He retired to the wilderness, but by no means to a desert. 
The spirit that led the first monks to choose the most Basil's 
dreary spots, for greater convenience of combating the 'treat. 
demons, was now giving way to a more genial and practical 
turn of mind. Basil's retreat was a charming mountain home, 
inhabited by one upon whom none of its charms were lost. 5 
There, in company with his friend Nazianzen who was per- 
suaded after a while to share his rest, he prayed and mused and 
studied ; making laws at the same time for the communities of 
monks which soon began to look to him as their ablest Monastic 
leader. His lessons infused a new spirit into the Cen- Lift ' 

obites. Among other good things, he taught them the spiritual 

4 This disturbance led Nazianzen to wish that the right of election might 
be taken from the people : such matters, he thought, were managed better in 
the State than in the Church. Orat. xix. in Fun. Patris. 

5 S. Basil. Epistol xiv. etc.; S. Greg. Nazianz. Epist. vii. etc. The en- 
thusiasm of Basil in his descriptions of natural scenery is finely set off by the 



456 Histojy of the Church. 

beauty of agriculture: 6 no fruit so bitter that care will not im- 
prove it, no soil so sterile that it cannot be reclaimed, no heart 
m m , so wicked that one need despair of it. With the 

J he Hit- 

demess same instinct for the useful, he made the wilderness to 

tloo7ns. 

bloom with noble charities. His preaching circuits ex- 
tended through the whole country round about ; and wherever 
he preached, societies sprang up for benevolence or devotion, 
hospitals were endowed, while, by the training of skilled choirs, 
the dull hearts of the Pontic peasantry were made to laugh and 
sing. 

The necessities of the times recalled him to Csesarea, where 
he was reconciled to his Bishop and became his successor. This 
Basil was n °t effected without opposition : there being a 

b?s/io/i great party against him, and the Saint himself plead - 
a.d. 370. - n g illness, inability, constitutional infirmity, and the 
like ; to all which the staunch old Gregory Nazianzen, 7 the 
father of Basil's friend, replied that they wanted a Bishop, not 
a prize-fighter, and that God was able to convert weakness into 
strength. He was finally elected ; and from that day his labors, 
cares, and trials went on in a line of fearful accumulation. 

He had been almost broken down before he came to the 

Episcopate, by distresses among the people of Caesarea : storms, 

. earthquakes, famines, had raged through Cappadocia, 

in and upon Basil had devolved the labor of unlocking 

Ccesarea. 

the hearts of the rich and filling the mouths of the 
clamorous poor. This was to plough in hard ground and to 
sow in stony places : there sprang from it, nevertheless, not im- 

broad humor of Nazianzen, who — though really much more of a poet — de- 
lights to throw cold water on the ardor of his friend. 

6 In Hexaem. Horn. v. Basil also recommends carpentry, shoemaking, 
medicine, etc. Lib. Regul. xxxviii. lv. 

7 The elder Gregory, whose praises with those of his devout wife are 
eloquently given by his son, was originally a member of the Hypsisterian sect 
— a sort of half Jewish, half heathen, society, "worshippers of the Most 
High" — and after coming into the Church had to work his way up to the 
truth through Arianism. Oral. xix. in Fun. Patris. 



S. Basil and S. Gregory. 45 7 

mediate relief merely, but hospitals, monastic associations which 
now began to flourish in the atmosphere of cities, and other like 
provisions for the sick 8 and needy. 

S. Basil was more than once persecuted by the Emperor and 
his ministers. Especially, on one occasion, when a widow 
claimed the right of sanctuary in the Church against „ „ ., 

J S. Basil 

the tyrannical wooing of Eusebius, an uncle of the and the 

m Emperor. 

Empress, he felt bound to maintain her cause at the 
peril of his life. But to a man of disciplined courage, and who 
had moreover a thorn in his side in the shape of " a trouble- 
some liver," trials of this kind were comparatively easy. Nor 
could he be subdued by the promise of favor at court. When 
the Emperor, on a visit to Caesarea, attended Church during 
the solemn services of the Epiphany, and went up to make his 
offering in view of a dense congregation, not a hand was 
stretched out to receive his gift : the master of the world stood 
before the Altar and the Archbishop an impenitent sinner, and 
as such had no right to offer. The spirit displayed on this and 
like occasions was (humanly speaking) the best safeguard against 
a tyrant such as Valens. 

A severer trial was the factious spirit which reigned in Cae- 
sarea, and the captious, ungenerous, and suspicious . 
temper that controversy had engendered among the from the 
Clergy. The Archbishop's mind was fruitful of new 
plans for aiding or exciting the devotions of the people. He 
was a patron of monarchism ; he was great in special services, 
in psalmody, in vigils, in the " decencies of the Altar." Hence 
no little stir among those whose traditions dated back 

Murmurs 

to "the good old times" of Gregory the Wonder- aud False 

, Charges. 

worker, and who conveniently forgot that their Saint 
had himself been an innovator of the liveliest kind. The 
Bishops, in like manner, took frequent exceptions to his doc- 
trine. Bred in the school of Origen, familiar with the difficul- 

8 His compassionate spirit was remarkably shown in his building a hos- 
pital for lepers. 

20 



45 8 History of the Church. 

lies of thoughtful Semiarians, and anxious to conciliate all hon- 
est differences, he was in his theology too lax for some, too 
strict for others, too broad and philosophic for almost all. 
Hence attacks so numerous and calumnies so petty and spiteful, 
that he was tempted to say, with the Psalmist, All men are liars, 
and to doubt whether honesty and charity had not taken their 
flight from the earth. But in the deep and tranquil soul of the 
great Athanasius he found a ready and cordial appreciation. 
When some one wrote to the noble Alexandrian, complaining 
of Basil's "Macedonian tendencies," he told the doubters to 
put away their fears and thank God for having given them so 
Pride of " glorious" a Bishop. 9 The Churchmen of the West, 
t e West. on t | ie con ^ rar y j W ere among the chief plagues of his 

life. They either held aloof in a "supercilious" spirit, 10 or, as 
in the case of the schism in Antioch, interfered in a mischiev- 
ous and arbitrary way. It was not in Basil's nature to bear 
these things with serenity. But bear them he did, however : 
and though his hair grew gray in the struggle, and his very 
heart bled, he had the Divine gift of extracting from his own 
wounds" a balm for the wounds of others. 

His friend Nazianzen aided him in his labors, but added to 
his trials. For it so happened that to secure the services of so 
able a coadjutor, and perhaps to draw him away from the retire- 
Gregory ment which he loved, Basil appointed him — a shep- 
Nazianzen. fe^ w ithout sheep — Bishop of a little border town 
called Sasima : a wretched sort of place, 12 without water, 
without verdure, full of dust and noise, a roost rather than an 



9 S. Athanas. ad Pallad. Op. ii. p. 763. 

10 He bitterly complained of Swinge b(j>pvog — the superciliousness of the 
"Westerns — " who neither knew the truth nor would bear to learn it." Epistol. 
x. ad Greg. The log. 

11 His Epistles are admirable specimens of consolatory writings — eloquent 
and full of heart. 

12 Under a mortified exterior Nazianzen had a strong sense of humor. 
For which reason, while I give his story as he relates it, I am not disposed to 
take his complaints to the letter. Like a good-natured traveller, he liked to 



S. Basil and S. Gregory. 45 9 

abode of a vagabond population of carriers, smugglers and 
revenue officers. Gregory felt the unkindness of his friend in 
consigning him to such a den, and there fell a shade of misun- 
derstanding upon one of the noblest and most delightful of 
Christian friendships. Basil's motive in this has never been 
satisfactorily explained. 13 It may have been, that ms proper 
knowing his friend's mind to be luminous rather than ■?*' 

ministrative, theological rather than episcopal, he thought to 
give him the dignity of the Bishopric without burdening him 
with its pomps and cares : a candle, to give light, must be set 
upon a candlestick, but it is not necessary that the candlestick 
should be of gold. 

However this may be, Sasima profited little by the Nazian- 
zen luminary, and the world gained much. Driven from the 
place by its thriftless population, he retired to Nazi- Gregory 
anzus, where he assisted his father so long as the latter re ires. 
lived, and after his death continued to discharge the duties of 
the Episcopate without formally accepting them. Thence, for 
some reason not known, he withdrew to Seleucia in Isauria, 
where he lived awhile the life of a solitary, confidently predict- 
ing 14 and quietly awaiting the time when heresy should be 
obliged to creep back into its holes. 

In the meantime Athanasius the Great had been summoned 
to his rest, and the iron rod of Arianism had fallen 

Athanasius 

once more upon the people of Alexandria : a heretic «#«, 

A.D. ^7^. 

named Lucius 13 renewed the evil times of George ; the 
orthodox Clergy, with Peter, their elected Bishop, were driven 
into exile. 

In the West, Ambrose had been chosen to the great See of 

have his joke about the discomforts of the way, though in reality he cared 
little for them. His complaints of Basil especially are relieved by gushes of 
generous praise. See his poem, De Vita Carmina, 30. 

*3 Sasima was in dispute between Basil and a neighboring Metropolitan : 
this, however, was no good reason for sending Gregory there. 

r * Epistles to S. Greg. Nyssen. xxxv. xxxvi. cxlii. 

x sTheod. iv. 21. 22. 



460 History of the Church. 

Milan in place of the Arian Auxentius, deceased. He was a 

layman only, at the time of his election; and, being 

jJfJJJ f governor of Liguria, was actually engaged in quelling 

Milan, a riot brought on bv the zeal of rival factions, when 

A.D. 374. . 

of a sudden a child's voice was heard crying, "Am- 
brose Bishop ! " The people took up the cry, and the popular 
magistrate pleaded in vain his moral and spiritual unfitness for 
the office ; even flight could not save him : the only terms he 
could make were that he should be baptized and ordained by 
an orthodox prelate. Milan was thus recovered to the Nicene 
faith, and S. Basil, among others, was profuse of congratu- 
lations. 

Shortly after this event, Valentinian, whose reign had been 
a perpetual struggle against the Alemanni and other 

Croatian "" ° 

Emp ror y barbarians of the North, died suddenly in a fit of rage 

A.D. 375. J ° 

at the ambassadors of the Quadi ; and Gratian, with 

Valentinian IT., an infant four years old, became sovereign of 

the West. Finally, Valens perished in war against the 

Valens and ° 

Basil die, Goths : Gratian, now master of the world, proclaimed 

A.D. 378. ; ' ' l 

toleration to all sects, except the Manichseans, Pho- 
tinians, and Eunomians ; Peter returned to Alexandria, Meletius 
Exiles to Antioch, and other exiles to other places ; and 
restored. t owarc i s th e enc [ f the same year Basil the Great, 
having lived to see a gleam of temporal prosperity, was taken 
to a better and more enduring rest. 

The change in the political sky drew Gregory once more 
from his retirement ; and by a strange guidance of Providence, 
Gregory in m which the chief human agency was probably the 
New Rome. a( } v i ce f § Basil and other orthodox Bishops, his 
steps were directed towards Constantinople, with the view of 
gathering and rekindling the few sparks of faith which survived 
in that city among the ashes of worldliness, heresy, and rampant 
persecution : for things had not altered for the better 

A.D. 3OO-37O. 

in the Eastern capital. Macedonius had been de- 
posed, but Eudoxius had succeeded : Eudoxius had died, but 
Demophilus, at whose instigation eighty ecclesiastics had been 



S. Basil and S. Gregory. 46 1 

put to death by Valens, came into his place. It was the old 
succession of the palmer-worm, the locust, the canker-worm, and 
the caterpillar. Churches were robbed, private property con- 
fiscated, the very tombs despoiled. The noble Church of S. 
Sophia had become a citadel of Satan, a camping-ground of 
demons. The men of the city were but Ahabs, the women 
were little better than frantic Jezebels. 16 

Into such a scene, gilded but not refined by courtly man- 
ners, there entered a lone stranger, bent with age and wasted 
by disease, bald-headed, decrepit, ill-favored, and The 

worse clad, rude 17 in speech, awkward in his address, Anastasta - 
and as indifferently provided with money as with wings. It 
was Gregory, just beginning the work of the Anastasia : l8 the 
prophet who was about to call dead Faith from its tomb, and to 
revive in a luxurious city the works of charity and self-denial. 
His success in the undertaking was truly wonderful. By prayers 
and tears ; by untiring labors ; by admirable discourses The 

in which his proper gift appeared, entitling him to the F Ja^ka^i 
name of the Theologian ; 19 not by miracles, 20 and cer- chanty. 
tainly not by flattery — for his tongue fell upon social follies with 
the emphasis of an iron flail ; more than all, perhaps, by sys- 
tematized efforts, men and women of all classes helping in the 
work : he gathered about himself all that was good in Constan- 

16 1 condense, and soften, the description given by Nazianzen. Orat. 
xlviii. 

x 7 Rude in the sense of rustic or provincial ; for in other respects he was 
extremely eloquent. His descriptions of himself are collected in Tillemont, 
ix. 2, xlvi. 

18 The Resurrection or Revival — the name of the little church where 
Gregory's flock met. 

J 9 Gregory the Presbyter, who wrote a life of S. Gregory Nazianzen, 
notices that to him alone, after S. John, was the name Theologian given. 

20 Gregory cultivated eloquence, he declared, because he had not, like the 
Apostles, the gift of miracles. The arguments with which Tillemont com- 
bats this disclaimer of miraculous powers are not convincing. It is easy to 
believe, however, that in the excitement of such a Revival there were 
" dreams, visions," etc., as affirmed by Sozomen, vii. 5. 



462 History of the Church. 

tinople ; and the little Anastasia bloomed, and the spiritual 
bees swarmed, 21 till there was no place to receive them, around 
the eloquent and saintly pastor. 

He stood, in fact, as the champion of the Divinity of the 
Defence of Holy Spirit: 22 and a sublime consciousness of the 
te spirit. p 0wer an( j presence of the Paraclete was the animat- 
ing principle of all his efforts. 

In all this he was befriended by the new Emperor Theo- 
dosius, to whom Gratian had committed the sovereignty of the 
Tktodasms, East, and who, like his Western colleague, favored the 
a.d. 379. Homoousion. In turn, he befriended the Emperor, 
and saved him from the guilt of violent persecution. Gregory 
had been more than once ill-treated by the dominant faction in 
the city : once he had been stoned, once cast into prison; once 
he narrowly escaped the knife of an assassin. But he bore no 
malice. It was his glory to conquer by patience and works of 
kindness. He was therefore in no haste to avail himself of the 
churches hdp of the secular arm. But Theodosius regarded it 
r totl r e ed as a matter of simple justice that the Catholics should 
Orthodox. k e res t orec i to the churches from which they had been 
forty years exiled, and should be put in possession of the prop- 
erty of which they had been robbed. This accordingly was 
done. The Arians went out, and the Catholics came in. De- 
mophilus shook off the dust from his feet against the city 23 and 
pitched his tent in the suburbs. Gregory reigned supreme in 
Constantinople. It was a reign, however, in which he could 
still feel the quaking of the buried giant's limbs; 24 while occa- 
sional "rumblings from beneath, with jets of hot smoke and 
flame," were a wholesome reminder to him of the precarious- 
ness of his triumph. 

21 See his affectionate poetical tribute to the Anastasia. Ins omnium de 
Anastas. Teniplo. 

22 To this he attributes all his success as a preacher. Carm. de Vit. 
^9-92; Insomn. de An. Temp. 2 3Sozom. vii. 5. 

2 * Gregory carries out the figure of Enceladus with humor and vigor 
De Vit. Carm. 102. 



Theodosivs and Second General Council, 463 



CHAPTER XI. 

THEODOSIUS AND THE SECOND GENERAL COUNCIL. 

Theodosius, a Spaniard by birth, was of an orthodox family, 
and had been brought up to reverence the Nicene Faith. A 
vision, 1 it is said, confirmed him in his convictions. Faith 0/ 
On receiving his appointment to the sovereignty of Theodosius - 
the East, the reward of a great victory over the Goths, in which 
he had avenged the defeat of Valens, he informed himself of 
the belief of the majority of his subjects ; and finding that 
Arianism was divided and distracted, having no solid hold upon 
the mass of people, he determined, if possible, to bring all back 
to the old way of thinking : so he restored the faithful to their 
rights in Constantinople, denied the name "Catholic" to all 
dissenters, and issued a general edict in favor of " the doctrine 
taught by Damasus of Rome" against Ursicinus, "and by 
Peter of Alexandria" against the Arian Lucius. 

His zeal is said to have been strengthened by an eccentric 
act of an aged orthodox Bishop. Coming into the Emperor's 
presence when the prince, his son, was sitting on a 

His Zeal, 

throne beside him, the old man reverently saluted the how 

t r confirmed. 

father but treated the son with neglect. He was forth- 
with driven from the presence-chamber. As he retired, he had 
time for a vigorous home-thrust at the offended monarch : 
" Reflect, O Emperor, on the wrath of the Heavenly Father at 
those who decline to honor His Son, who regard Him as of an 
inferior nature ! ' ' The argument answered its purpose. Theo- 

1 Theod. v. 5, 6 ; Sozom. vii. 4, 6. 



464 History of the Church. 

dosius became so decided in his faith, that the eloquent Eu^ 
nomius, the most able of the Arian leaders, could not even 
obtain the boon of a hearing from him. 

In order to bring his subjects to a similar firmness in the 
faith, and with a view to the settlement of certain minor ques- 
tions, he proceeded to assemble in Constantinople 

Council A x 

assembled, that great Synod of Eastern Bishops which is known 
in history as the Second Ecumenical Council. 2 Pre- 
lates to the number of one hundred and fifty were present, in- 
cluding those of Egypt and Macedonia, who were somewhat late 
in appearing. There were also thirty followers of Macedonius, 
who met apart, however, and steadfastly refused to be recon- 
ciled. 

The first business before the Synod related to the See of 
Constantinople, which was virtually held by Gregory, but was 
its first contested by an Egyptian of the name of Maximus, 
one of the most remarkable pretenders of the age. 
His story, vividly related by Nazianzen, may serve as a sam- 
ple of the scandals 3 to which the Church at that time was 
exposed. 

About a year after Gregory's arrival in the Eastern capital, 
there had come to him a man wearing the white robe of a 
Maximus Cynic, with the staff usually borne by philosophers of 
the Cyme. ^^ orr \ er ^ an d an enormous head of hair naturally 
black, but dyed a brilliant golden red. 4 It was Maximus the 
Egyptian, a Christian philosopher, a staunch Confessor, an im- 
perturbable man of a certain "whale-like" gravity 5 of face and 
Gregory manner. Gregory, like others, became a willing dupe 
deceived. tQ suc \- 1 pretensions. It was "a great fish" come to 
his net ; and if the aspect of the man was somewhat unchris- 
tian-like, the Saint was so accustomed to look for wolves in 

2 Sozom. vii. 7-1 1; Socrat. v. 5-9; Theod. v. 8, 9; S. Greg. Theolog. 
Carm. de Vit., etc. 

3 Gregory says, there was never a better subject for comedy. Carm 61. 

4 S. Greg. Carm. de Vit. 50. 

5 cKptovov TTTJfia Krjrudeq repag. 



Theodosius and Second General Council. 465 

sheep's clothing, that when one came before him in its proper 
skin 6 it threw him off his guard. The end of it was that Max- % 
imus seemed devoted to Nazianzen, and Nazianzen to him ; the 
Cynic feigned to be enraptured with the beauty of the Saint's 
discourses, the Saint lauded the Cynic publicly in Church as 
a man of extraordinary merit : the two were inseparable — one 
house, one table, one line of meditation and study, one sacred 
purpose in life. Such was the state of things in Constantinople. 

In the meantime a most ingenious train had been laid among 
the Clergy of the rival city of Alexandria. By the arts of Max- 
imus and (as Gregory insinuates) not without the use piotof 
of gold, Peter, the Bishop of that See, had been per- Maximus - 
suaded that New Rome was much in need of a spiritual head ; 
that Gregory was hardly the man for the place, being rustic in 
his manners, infirm, impracticable, eccentric, 7 and liable to 
exception moreover on canonical grounds ; 8 that there was a 
certain Christian Sage on the spot whose praise was in the 
Churches, having been trumpeted by no less a person than the 
saintly Gregory himself; that, in short, it would be an excel- 
lent thing, and might prevent confusion, if an able prelate could 
be quietly installed in so important a See before the people 
should have time to make a noise about it. 

Peter readily lent himself to these or such-like views. The 
canonical number of Bishops was secretly sent from The Cyn ic 
Alexandria to Constantinople ; a congregation, con- enthroncd - 
sisting chiefly of Egyptian mariners, stealthily assembled in the 
principal Church by night ; and everything was in readiness to 

6 " It is true," said Gregory, in his apology for Maximus (Orat. xxiii.), 
" that he practices our philosophy under a strange garb : still that (the white 
robe, namely) may be taken as a sign of purity of soul. He is a Cynic (z. e., 
a dog) only in boldness of utterance, in living from day to day, in vigilance 
for souls, in fawning upon virtue, and in barking at vice." 

7 Gregory says [Orat. xxxii.) that he could not walk hi other men's 
steps, that he was regarded as a sort of insane De?nocritus, etc., etc. 

8 Translations "from one city to another" were forbidden by Canon 15 
of Nicaea and by Apostol. Can. 14. 

20* 



465 History of the Church. 

ret Maxim-us, hair and all, 9 upon the archiepiscopal throne. The 
thing leaked out, and the city was instantaneously in the wildest 
uproar. High and low, magistrates, people, strangers, even 
heretics rushed to the rescue : the officiating prelates were 
obliged to break off the rite, and the plot of Maximus seemed 
for the time defeated. It was renewed, however, in the house 
of a flute-player. In spite of all opposition the philosopher 
was ordained and carried through some form of inthronization : 
a sacrifice being made to public opinion in this respect only, 
that he was obliged to submit to the inexorable tonsure, and 
thus part with his fine head of hair. 

The wretch was driven from Constantinople, and found no 

He is favor with the Emperor, to whom he had the face to 

appeal. He was also abandoned after awhile, though 

with some reluctance, by the Alexandrine Clergy and others of 

his supporters. 

He fared no better when his case came up before the Synod 
at Constantinople. He was unanimously condemned by a de- 
Maximus cree, that "he neither had been nor was a Bishop" ; 
Gr??o"y ed ' and " a11 things which had been done, either about 
enthroned. ^im or -fry him," were declared to be " null and void." 
At the same time Gregory, who had repeatedly declined to seat 
himself in the archiepiscopal chair, though urgently pressed by 
the people and the Emperor, was at length forced to yield to 
the wishes of his colleagues, and being duly enthroned presided 
for awhile in the Council. 

Gregory acceded the more readily to this transaction, that 
Second he hoped to be able to harmonize parties in the next 
Question. g reat question before them, the schism in the Church 
of Antioch. 

Meletius, the sober and gentle pastor of that distracted flock, 
a man "whose manners and name savored both of honey," had 
died shortly after the opening of the Council; and the way 

9 He wished, it appears, to dispense with the tonsure : whereupon S. 
Gregory rallies him not a little. Carm. 64. 



Theodosius and Second General Council. 46 7 

seemed clear for a satisfactory settlement, by allowing Paulinus, 
in compliance with an agreement which Meletius S ck sm in 
himself had suggested, 10 to occupy at once the vacant Ani,o < /i - 
chair. But opposed to this equitable arrangement was a strong 
and bitter feeling, on the part of the Eastern Clergy, p ar ties in 
against that meddlesome spirit of the West which had the Council - 
originally ordained and had so long sustained Paulinus. The 
old men of the Synod were, like Gregory, in favor of peace ; 
but at every proposition to that effect the young men" flew out 
"like wasps" — a "whirlwind of dust and noise" — and car- 
ried all before them by their "jackdaw clamor." In short, 
it was determined that Paulinus should be dropped, Flavian 
and that a new Bishop should be ordained for An- * iec *«?- 
tioch. So Flavian was duly elected, and the schism continued 
for some years longer. 

What was worse, a feeling was engendered which upset the 
former decision of the Council and proved fatal to the 

Movement 

influence of Nazianzen. Instead of standing, as he against 

Gregory. 

proposed, "a leader between two bands, now facing 
the one, and now the other, and blending the two into a perfect 
choir," he was rather as one crushed between two millstones: 
the nether stone being the strong Eastern feeling against 

10 At the opening of the Council, Meletius presided. When he returned 
from exile, after the death of Valens, he made the following noble speech to 
Paulinus : "As God committed to me the care of this flock, and as you have 
received the charge of another, . ... let us, O friend, unite our flocks. If 
the Episcopal chair be to us a matter of strife, let us place the Holy Gospels 
upon it, and seat ourselves one on each side. If I die first, you, O friend, 
will become sole ruler of the flock : but if your death occur before mine, I 
will, as far as I am able, tend the flock alone." Theodoret (v. 3) declares 
that the amicable proposal was rejected by Paulinus : Sozomen implies (vii. 
11) that a compact had been made and confirmed by oath. It is a strong tes- 
timony to the merits of Meletius, that even the West, which persecuted him 
while living, consented finally to his canonization. 

11 De Vit. Carm. 137. The "young men" argued that the East ought 
to have the preeminence, because our Lord was born in the East : as good an 
argument, perhaps, as some that have been advanced on the opposite side. 



46S History of the Church. 

"Western pride," and the upper coming not long after in the 
shape of the Egyptian deputation, which, for reasons already 
intimated, and possibly from some secret grudge, unanimously 
demanded his deposition. He resolved to be "the Jonah" of 
this strange storm. With tears he implored the Coun- 

He resigns. , x 

cil to unbind him from the altar on which he lay : with 
earnest prayers he begged the Lord to " provide a ram in Isaac's 
stead," for the holocaust of an Episcopate so beset with fiery 
trials. The Egyptians applauded, the others acquiesced. Greg- 
Nectarius ory wa s permitted to retire ; and Nectarius, 12 a good- 
natured layman of excellent birth, being duly elected, 
baptized, and carried through the inferior Orders, was conse- 
crated and seated upon the vacant throne. 

The generous sacrifice was not without effect upon the re- 
maining acts of the Council. In bodies of that kind party 
spirit is apt to run high at first : for the members 

The Council l x & 

harmo- being comparatively unknown to one another, and 
mutually suspicious, the law of self-assertion overrides 
all others and reigns for awhile supreme. But an unselfish act 
breaks the force of this law, and makes men aware of their 
common kin. In this way we may account for the fact that 
the Second General Council was happier in its issue than they 
had reason to expect 13 who looked only at the clouds of its 
inauspicious beginning. 

First : It settled and completed the Nicene Creed, by add- 
The Creed m g> or rather by compiling from the numerous ortho- 
settted. ^ ox S y m bols, such expressions as were needed to make 
it a full Rule of Faith, M condemning the Photinian, Macedonian, 
Apollinarian, Eunomian, and other heresies. 

12 It was under this Nectarius that private confession — which had taken 
the place of the old public confession — was abolished, owing to a scandal 
that occurred in connection with a female penitent. Sozom. viii. 16. 

*3 The famous saying of Nazianzen, that he never knew any good to come 
of Councils, is obviously a fruit of his impatience, rather than of his experi- 
ence. Epistol. xlii. Procopio. 

x 4 The additions may be thus expressed in italics : " We believe in one 



Theodosius and Second General Council. 469 

Secondly : It made four canons, to which three were added 
the year after ; the first anathematizing the chief heresies, the 
fourth condemning Maximus, the third giving the The 

second place of honor to the See of Constantinople or canons. 
New Rome, and the second defining the limits and rights of 
Dioceses, and forbidding all Bishops to exercise their office out 
of their own jurisdiction. The numerous cases of interference 
that had occurred of late rendered this second Canon particu- 
larly necessary. 

Thirdly : It communicated the result of its deliberations to 
the Emperor, in a Synodical Epistle, thanking God synodicai 
for all that had been done, and asking the Imperial £?™tie. 
sanction. 

The Western Church was not represented in the Council, 
and was not satisfied with the result, either in reference to 

God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things 
visible and invisible : And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of 
God, Begotten of the Father before all worlds ; God of God, Light of Light, 
very God of very God, Begotten, not made, Being of one substance with the 
Father ; By whom all things were made ; Who, for us men, and for our sal- 
vation, came down from Heaven, And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and 
the Virgin Mary, And was made man, And was crucified also for us under 
Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried ; And the third day He rose 
again, according to the Scriptures ; And ascended into the heavens, And sitteth 
on the right hand of the Father. And He shall come again with glory to 
judge both the quick and the dead ; Whose kingdom shall have no end. And 
we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Life- Giver, Who proceedeth 
from the Father [and the Son], Who with the Father and the Son together 
is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the Prophets. And we believe in 
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one Baptism for 
the remission of sins ; And we look for the Resurrection of the dead, And 
the Life of the world to come. Amen.'''' The sources of these additions are 
concisely given in Hammond's Councils and Canons ; also in Bright's Hist, 
of the Church, p. 175. The omission of " Holy" as one of the notes of the 
Church in our Prayer Book version is probably a lapse of some translator : 
the same error occurs in an old Latin version of the Concilia, etc. Colon. 
1567, torn. i. p. 489. The words "and the Son" were a later insertion of the 
Western Church. 



47° History of the Church. 

Paulinus, whose cause they continued to maintain ; to Maximus, 
Council, kow whom they took up but soon had to drop, or to the 
honor of a second place in the hierarchy conferred on 
Constantinople. These things were complained of by a West- 
ern Council holden the same year at Aquileia ; and it was pro- 
posed by Damasus, Ambrose, and other Italian Bishops, that a 
new general Synod should convene at Rome. The East, it was 
contended, ought not to have acted without consulting the 
West. While the latter assumed to itself no prerogative of 
judgment, it was entitled to be heard, at least, before a decision 
was reached. 15 The Easterns, in answer, politely 
wished 16 they had " wings like a dove to flee to the 
side of their Western brethren," but felt obliged, nevertheless, 
to decline the summons : partly that they saw nothing to amend 
in the action already taken, and partly on the ground of the 
great inconvenience to themselves and their flocks of absence 
Finally from their Sees at a time so critical. The dispute 
approved. g rac j ua ]iy ciied out of itself ; and the Council acquired 
finally an ecumenical character by the acquiescence of all parties 
in the soundness and wisdom of its theological decisions. 

Gregory, the meanwhile, had bidden a tender adieu to his 
beloved flock ; to his throne, the cause of so many troubles ; to 
Gregory's tne sweet Anastasia, the resplendent S. Sophia ; to the 
Farewell. Q er g Vj Monks, widows, orphans, poor \ to the choral 
Nazarites 'enlivening the night-watches with their psalms and 
hymns ; to the Emperor and all his court ; to the heretics, 
whom he exhorted to be converted ; to the East and West, the 
upper and lower millstones of his tribulations ; to the Holy 
Apostles, the Guardian Angels, the blessed and adorable Trin- 
ity. 17 "I have toiled in this place," said he : " I have gath- 
ered a flock where the wolves had scattered ; I have given the 
water of life where water failed ; I have sown the seeds of that 
faith which is built upon God Himself; I have revealed the 

'5 S. Ambros. Ep. 13, 14. l6 Theod. v. 9. 

x 7 S. Greg. Theolog. Oral. xlii. 



Theodosius and Second General Council. 47 1 

light of the Trinity to those who before were in baleful darkness. 
Some have been converted by my preaching. Others are not 
far off. I have reason to hope well of those who at first were 

unwilling to hearken to me My beloved children, keep 

the good trust committed to you : remember the stones where- 
with I have been stoned." 

With such words he departed from the scene of his great 
joys and trials, withdrawing to the life of a recluse in Nazianzus ; 
where he wrote poems and letters and an autobiog- Life of a 
raphy in lively verse : l8 where also he made the dis- R eduse. 
covery, so often made before and since, that the world is not 
confined to Constantinople ; that though a man may seal his 
eyes, 19 his ears, his mouth, and pass whole Lents in unbroken 
silence, yet the buzz of the great Babylon is about him still ; 
and while his heart is striving to entertain angels, Sodom is still 
battering at its doors and windows. 

Theodosius was much better pleased with the action and 
result of the General Council. At a third Synod, holden two 
years later in Constantinople, he undertook, like 

„ . . r , Conference 

Constantme, to play the part of a theologian and to of the Sects, 
reconcile all sects by an open and free discussion. 20 
The result was a Babel of angry tongues. But the oral debate 
failing to produce agreement, the Emperor next required each 
sect to appear before him with a written statement of its peculiar 
tenets. They did so ; the Confessions of Faith were Heresies 
submitted to the imperial arbiter ; the Novatians and f° rbtdden - 
Catholics were approved : 21 all the others were rejected and were 

18 He wrote poetry by way of penance : there remain some thirty thou- 
sand verses — a mine of good sense, sparkling wit, apt similitudes, lively 
descriptions ; of wisdom in its playful as well as serious moods. 

J 9 He passed a Lent in silence; resolved never to look upon a woman, 
etc., etc. His reasons for bridling the tongue are given with much spirit in 
Carm. liv. So strong, however, was Gregory's social feeling that he could 
not forbear writing to his friends, and even visiting them — appearing before 
them " like a picture" — during his silent term. 

20 Socrat. v. IO; Sozom. vii. 12. 

21 The Novatians, like the Catholics, confessed the Consubstantial. 



47 2 History of the Church. 

even forbidden to hold religious meetings. Catholicism became 
thus the State religion of the East. 

In the West there was temporary confusion from the influ- 
ence of Justina, the Arian widow of Valentinian I., at first in 
Emperors the court of Gratian, and afterwards in that of Valen- 
"o/l/H'iveft, tinian II. But Maximus, who rebelled against Gratian 
a.d. 383. an( j wrestec i from him his life with the sovereignty of 
Britain, Spain, and Gaul, was favorable to the Church and the 
Nicene cause. Among the prelates, Damasus — assisted by the 
learning of S. Jerome and of Paulinus, the schismatical pre- 
tender to Antioch — upheld with great dignity, earnestness, and 
devotion the ever growing power of the Roman See : on his 
death, he was succeeded by Siricius, the author of the 
earliest genuine " decretal epistle." S. Ambrose gov- 
erned in Milan : S. Martin of Tours converted the peasantry in 
Gaul. These latter names, however, are of special significance 
in the history of the Western Church, and will enter more at 
large into the remaining chapters of this Book. 



CHAPTER XII. 

MISSIONS. MONASTICISM. — S. MARTIN. 

The life of the fourth century was largely polemical, and the 
Fourth war against Arian and pagan errors within the Empire 

Century 

Polemical, itself left little time or strength for purely mission- 
ary efforts. 

Still there was a steady advance in the conversion of the 

world : partly from an inherent aggressiveness of the 
troubled Truth causing it to press in at every opening, partly 

from that wondrous ordering of Providence which 
made the decline of the Roman State a Bethesda, as it were 



Missions. 473 

— a pool divinely troubled, that the nations one by one might 
be brought to it and healed of their barbarism. 

From Armenia, converted early in the century, the Gospel 
was conveyed by a female captive to the warlike nation of the 
Iberians, 1 a people dwelling about midway between conversion 
the Black Sea and the Caspian. It happened that a °f Iberta " 
child in that country, being taken ill, was carried from house to 
house, according to a custom still common in barbarous tribes, 
to be benefited by the experience of the simple neighborhood. 
The Christian woman saw him, and prayed in the name of 
Christ for his recovery. The prayer was granted. Not long 
after, a similar cure was wrought in like manner upon the queen 
of the Iberians ; and the king was almost persuaded to be a 
Christian. He hesitated, however, and was in great perplexity. 
The cloud upon his mind was dispelled by an event which de- 
livered him at the same time from bodily peril : for on a certain 
occasion, as he was hunting alone upon the mountains, a storm 
came on with a sudden darkness ; he bethought himself of Christ 
and prayed for light ; Christ gave him light, and he p ra .yer 
and his family believed. The people followed the f° r Li s kt - 
example of their prince. An embassy was dispatched with the 
glad tidings to Constantine, who sent them a Bishop and com- 
pany of priests ; so that Iberia soon took a place among the 
Christian nations. 

From Osrhoene and Armenia the Truth flowed into Persia ; 2 
but the religion of the Magi, a system strongly organized, and 
pure and elevated as compared with paganism in gen- The church 
eral, persecuted the Church with ruthless vigor, and in Persm - 
more than sixteen thousand martyrs sealed their faith with their 
blood. Constantine wrote to Sapor in their behalf; but the 
power of the Magi, the malignity of the Jews, and a national 
prejudice against the Gospel as the religion of their enemies 
the Romans, kept the Persian Church, and with it the Arme- 

1 Socrat. i. 20; Theod. i. 23. 

2 Sozom. ii. 8-15; Theod. v. 38; Socrat. vii. 8, 18, 20. 



474 History of the Church. 

man, in a state of depression. By the end of the fourth cen- 
tury it became aggressive again. A Bishop named Abdas ven- 
tured to burn a Fire-temple. This naturally awakened a new 
persecution ; and the faithful were involved once more in a 
storm of indescribable horrors. 

The "interior of India," by which is meant probably some 
portion of Abyssinia, was evangelized anew by Frumentius, a 
India or Christian captive, 3 who found favor with the chiefs of 
yss via. t | ie (.Quj-jj-j-y^ j e( j them to desire the Gospel, and after- 
wards, returning to his home in Egypt, begged S. Athanasius to 
send a Bishop among them. The Saint replied, with his usual 
readiness, " Who better than you can remove the ignorance of 
this people?" So he laid his hands on him and sent him back 
to the work. 

The Goths on both. sides of the Danube 4 had learned some- 
thing of Christianity in the latter half of the third century : for 
„,, the flood of invasion which swept through Thrace into 

The Goths v & 

on the Asia Minor and thence back, in the times of Decius 

Danube. 

and his successors, carried with it the Gospel in that 
form in which it is often most effectual, so that the captors were 
led captive by the truth which they had persecuted. Constan- 
tine, by his victories and treaties, confirmed them in the faith ; 
and a Bishop of theirs, named Theophilus, attended the Coun^ 
cil of Nicsea. At a later period, Valens allowed the same peo- 
ple to settle south of the Danube, as a bulwark of the Empire 
against the northern hordes, and a new field for the planting 
Bishop °f Arianism. For it so happened that their Bishop, 
uifiias. uifii aSj casting around in all quarters for help in his 
evangelic labors, fell in with Eudoxius and others of the Court 
party, and purchased their good-will at the price of a politic 
subscription to the Creed of Ariminum. He also gave his 
people an alphabet and a translation of the Scriptures. Chris- 
tianity thus spread among the Goths and other Barbarians, in a 

3 Socrat. i. 19 ; Theod. i. 23. 

tSozom. ii. 6; Socrat. i. 18; ii. 41 ; iv. 33; Theod. iv. 37. 



Missions. 475 

form which fell short of the Nicene doctrine, 5 but could hardly 
be said to contradict it. Many of the converts were tried by 
persecutions : but " having embraced Christianity, with great 
simplicity of mind, they despised the present life for the faith 
of Christ." 

In the reign of the same Valens, Moses, a pious and honest 
monk, converted the Saracens, 6 with Mabia their queen. These 
people were engaged at the time in a devastating war The 

against the Romans. They offered peace on the con- Saracens - 
dition that Moses should be made their Bishop, The good 
monk accordingly was torn from his cell in the desert and car- 
ried to Alexandria, to be consecrated by Lucius, the Arian pre- 
late. But he refused to accept the laying on of such hands. 
(t Not for matters of faith do I object," said he : " it is for your 
infamous cruelty to the brethren. A Christian is no striker, no 
brawler, no fighter ; for it becometh not a servant of the Lord 
to fight. But your deeds cry out against you : your hands are 
stained with blood." His scruples were respected, and he re- 
ceived ordination at the hands of some of the exiled orthodox 
Bishops. 

All these are instances rather of spontaneous growth than of 
missionary effort in the modern sense of the word. It 

The Seed 

was the seed sowing itself: there was on the part of sowing 

° l itself. 

the Church, however, a readiness to take advantage of v 

such openings as Providence presented, and to send laborers to 

every spot in which the harvest seemed to have begun. 

In the West, the Empire was engaged in a desperate struggle 
for the borders of the Rhine and the Danube ; and the struggle in 
spread of the Gospel fluctuated with the shifting for- the West - 
tunes of aggression from the one side or the other along that 
line. 

Paganism, in fact, remained to be conquered within the 
Empire. Christianity was strong only in the cities : the rude 

5 See the Creed in Socrat. ii. 41. 

6 Socrat. iv. 36 ; Theod. iv. 23. 



476 History of the Church. 

country folk, half slaves, half savages, clung with fond tenacity 
strength of to their old superstitions. And doubtless, at a time 
Pagamsm. wnen the ramparts of civilization were all giving way ; 
when, partly from the internal weakness of the Roman State, 
and partly from the steady pressure of invasion on every side, 
there seemed imminent peril of a relapse into barbarism : they 
would have clung to their idolatry much longer than they did, 
had their conversion been left to the ordinary ministry, or to 
the methods which had grown out of the wants of a more pol- 
ished class. 

But precisely at this hour of need there was a mysterious 
revolution going on in society, which, according to the point 
Mona- of view taken, may be regarded as the height of wis- 
chism. ^ om Qr t ^ e i ie jgh t f i nsan ity ; but which, in either 

case, was destined to exert an influence, equally incalculable and 
irresistible, upon the growth of the Church and the progress of 
the human race. By the end of the fourth century Monachism 7 
had already become a great power on the earth. It had all the 
freshness, confidence, and vitality of a special mission. It was 
the "rough garment," as it were, of the Gospel 
economical preached to the poor : it was Christianity adapted to 

uses. 

the coarseness of rustic apprehension. In itself, in- 
deed, and in the fantastic exhibitions which accompanied its 
rise in the East, it seemed merely a new form of that sensuous 
enthusiasm, that many-headed dragon of the primitive Church, 
which developed in the second century into the Phrygian 
phrenzy : but in the course it ran for a thousand years or more, 
in the economical uses it was providentially made to subserve, 
it appears in history rather as Behemoth yoked to the Gospel 
car j as Leviathan given to be " meat for the people in the wil- 

7 Socrat. iv. 23-26; Sozom. vi. 28-34; S. Pachom. Abb. Regul., etc; 
S. P. N. Macarii ^Egypt. Homil. ; J. Cassian. De Institnt. Ccenob. ; Nilus 
Monach. Institttt., etc. For these and others see BibliotJiec. Vet. Patrum, 
tomm. iv. v. ; S. Chrysostom, adv. Oppugnat. Vit. Monast. ; Epistles of S. 
Jerome, S. Basil, and others; Montalembert, Les Moines d' Occident ; Giese- 
ler, U 95-97- 






Monasticism . 477 

derness"; one of those Divine upturnings and tmsettlings 
in the social state by which laborers are thrown out 8 into the 
whitening harvest ; one of those disturbings 9 of the house of the 
woman in the Parable, which are needed for the recovery of the 
lost "piece of silver"; as, in short, a gigantic extravagance 
tamed and utilized, and mysteriously directed to a work which 
Religion, in a more sober mood, might never have undertaken. 

Enthusiasm doubtless was the inner spring of the movement ; 
but enthusiasm alone could hardly have sustained it, in a healthy 
state of society. A high civilization that had run to state of 
seed, a tree which had lost the power to hold its fruit Sociei y- 
on the bough, a social condition in which "all things were 
turned upside down," which good men 10 compared to a house 
on fire or a ship in the hands of a drunken crew, and amid all 
this an exquisite sensibility to sin and misery, caused whole com- 
munities to flow out into the desert wilds ; so that, not in Egypt 
alone, but in Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Asia 
Minor, the skin- clad tribes of "philosophers" were soon reck- 
oned by tens of thousands. 

The life of S. Antony 11 was a type of the general course of 
Monasticism. The feverish desire of "angelic" life, the sun- 
dering of all social ties, the battle in solitude with 
lusts and demons, the creation of a new and fantastic 
intellectual world — a world so remote from ordinary experience 
that its very language seems mythic and hieroglyphic 12 — finally, 

8 Luke, x. 2 : brrug tufiaKkri seems to imply a vigorous ejectment of the 
laborers — who, perhaps, are comfortably housed and taking their ease. 

9 Luke, xv. 8 : instead of everrit some of the fathers read evertit ; i. e., 
the woman disturbs the house, turns it upside down, in search of the lost 
piece of silver. See Catena Aurea. 

10 " I wish there were no need of monasteries ; but when everything in 

society is turned upside down we ought not to find fault with those 

who escape such a miry and troublous sea, and take refuge in a peaceful 
haven." S. Chrysostom, adv. Oppugnat. Vit. Monast. i. 7. 

11 See Book III. chap. vi. of this History. 

12 At a certain stage of intellectual excitement, the mind, without losing 
its reverence for truth, becomes demoralized with regard to mere matters of 



47 8 History of the Church. 

the multitude pouring forth into the wilderness "to see" the 
phenomenon, and the anchoret forced into the world again as 
a prophet, preacher, and pioneer in a new line of Christian con- 
quest : all this was more or less exhibited in the career of An- 
tony, though its full significance was not seen for some ages 
after. 

The example, in all its extravagance, was followed by innu- 
merable imitators. Pachomius for fifteen years never slept but 
other in an upright posture ; Macarius the younger lived six 
Monks months naked, in a marsh, to be stung by gnats ; 
Theonas, a mighty scholar, observed for thirty years an unbroken 
silence. Yet amid these and thousands of such like whims, the 
spirit of order was reasserting itself; the social instinct was re- 
turning under another form ; the wild den of the anchoret was 
becoming the nucleus of the cenobium, laura, mandra, or monas- 
tery, where men lived together as "brothers," under an Abbot 
or Archimandrite. 

Pachomius was the first of the solitaries who was called to 
be a ruler and legislator. On Tabenna, an island of the Nile, 
The ne gave laws to a community of monks, which, with a 

tenobium. s j m ^ ar establishment for nuns, under the direction of 
his sister, numbered, by the end of the fourth century, some 
fifty thousand. Amnion was at the head of a similar society on 
the Nitrian mountain ; another was planted by Macarius the 
elder in the wilderness of Sketis ; Serapion, with about one 
thousand brothers, in the neighborhood of Arsinoe, raised corn 
for the supply of the other monks, and for gratuitous distribu- 
tion among the poor ; Oxyrynchus swarmed with a population 
of ten thousand of the one sex, and twenty thousand of the 
other, devoted to the virgin, philosophic and angelic life. There 
were like communities springing up spontaneously, each with 

fact ; the imagination and the reason dissolve partnership, as it were, and 
move in separate spheres, the latter retaining its full strength in certain things, 
but exerting no controlling power upon the former. Such seems to me to 
have been the mental state of the early monks : a state in v/hich myths are 
manufactured without any intention to deceive. 



Monasticism, 479 

its own code of laws and peculiar ways, all over the Eastern 
world. 

But as numbers increased, "the world" found its way into 
these lesser worlds. Hence a process of separation going on 
continuously. Smaller societies drew off from the A , 

J m A nchorets, 

tainted air of the larger ones ; and from these again Watchers, 

» 1 • • it mi iii and others. 

the more fervid spirits seceded. The anchoret looked 
with pity upon the luxury of the cenobite ; the watchers^ warred 
against sleep ; the grazers roved and ate grass like cattle ; finally, 
the pillar-saints gave a lead beyond which emulation could go 
no further. 

On the other hand, some combined monastic with social 
duties. 14 Though, as a general rule, "a monk out of the des- 
ert ' ' was considered a ' ' fish out of water, ' ' yet city Married 
monks, and perhaps married monks, were not un- 
known. There were also hordes of wild beggars whose fanati- 
cism was hardly tinctured with any element of Christian doc- 
trine. 

The character of the better class of ascetics was often a sin- 
gular mixture of visionary enthusiasm and coarse and hard com- 
mon-sense. Ammon, a newly-wedded bridegroom, Monastic 
won his young bride to the "angelic" life by " des- Wlsdom - 
canting upon the burdens and discomforts of rearing a family" ; 
yet the same Ammon would not swim a stream for fear of the 
"immodesty" of seeing his own body naked. Pambos took 
nineteen years to learn the meaning of the words, "I will take 
heed to my ways, that I offend not with my tongue ' ' ; but it 
was the same Pambos who wept on seeing an actress, "be- 
cause," said he, "I exert myself less to please my God than 
she to please filthy men." Isidore, less diffident, declared that 
for forty years he had not been conscious of sin, even 

. . _ , , , Maxims. 

in thought. In many cases, however, the monks 

learned from their own experience that "bodily exercise' 1 is 

z 3 These belong rather to the fifth century. See Evagrius, i. 21. 
^Gieseler, §95, nn. 41-48. 



4 o History of the Church. 

not the only thing needful towards the perfection of Christian 
character. The "dry diet," said one, "must be combined with 
love." The same judicious brother recommended "minister- 
ing to the sick" as a better specific than fasting, even, against 
nightly visitations of ghosts and fiends. In short, amid all 
the extravagances of monastic life there was a "philosophy" 
that did honor to human nature : and oftentimes those who in 
their own practice had been most extreme, 15 were the most con- 
siderate and charitable in the rules they laid down for others. 

They found, in fact, that religious enthusiasm, like all other 
passions, needs to be restrained and guided. 16 Hence manual 
Monastic labor, sometimes in the cells and sometimes in out- 
door employments, distinguished the better class of 
Egyptian monasteries. "A working monk has but a single 
devil to contend against, an idle one is torn by thousands." A 
diet, not too abundant nor yet too spare, was a wise addition to 
this wholesome rule. There were regular hours, from twice to 
six times a day, for prayers : private vows were to "dart up" 
constantly, each breath was to be an " ejaculation." The times 
and manner of meals, of sleep, of recreation, were prescribed 
with the minuteness of military law, and enforced with the 
rigor of military drill. Thus the tendency to extrav- 

A Check b J . . . 

upon En- agance was kept in check: 17 and if, in spite of all, 

thusiasm. 

there were cases not a few of melancholy, frenzy, 
demoniacal possession, or even suicide, it is true, on the other 
hand, that the subjects of this discipline were not in general 

*5 S. Jerome, especially, profited by his experience in that way, and draws 
vivid pictures of the perils of asceticism. See Gieseler, $95, nn. 11, 28. 

16 The Homilies of S. Macarius are admirable persuasions to a sober, ra- 
tional, well-ordered piety : so much so that they have been accused of incul- 
cating religious apathy. But the most fervid monks were often moderate in 
their style of preaching. 

x 7 Here, I think, is the essential difference between Christian and heathen 
Monachism. The tendency to solitary life being in itself a sort of fever — 
not a disease, but a violent effort of nature to throw off disease — heathenism 
lets the fever run ; Christianity controls it and turns it to some good account. 



Monasticism. 48 1 

the most healthy minds, but oftener the mere wrecks and waifs lS 
of an effete civilization. 

The state of society and general turn of mind, which led so 
many to adopt the monastic life, made the system useful in a 
way that the first ascetics probably had never intended. special 
The oddities of the monks attracted attention. Their Mlssion - 
simplicity and benevolence and untutored tongues 19 won for 
them the favor of the common people. They thus became 
preachers against their will. At a time, moreover, 

Preaching. 

when the ordinary style of the pulpit was too theolog- 
ical for heathen ears, the voice that was content to cry in the 
wilderness, that harped with strident force upon the elementary 
topics of temperancer, ighteousness, and judgment to come, had 
a peculiar charm for the mass of men ; and multitudes, not from 
the country merely, but from the cities and towns, eagerly 
poured forth to hear it. 

In the times of Valens, Monachism had grown so popular 
that it was objected to as a drain upon the resources of the 
State : which served as a pretext for persecution — the 

Valens 

real reason being the zeal of the monks for the Nicene per* -cut s 

_ . . _ _ _ . 1 r -, • the Monks. 

Faith. Many of them, therefore, were pressed into 
the army : those who refused were beaten to death with clubs. 
The usual effect of persecution followed. Enthusiasm soured 
into fanaticism. Hordes of heated zealots roved through the 
East, waging a predatory war upon paganism, and differing 
little in temper — however they might differ in creed — from 
those pests of the North African Church, the Circumcellions. 20 

18 Hence those Fathers who have left the darkest pictures of monastic 
life were, nevertheless, in their day, the chief promoters of it. And why ? 
Because, I think, they judged a monastery much as we judge a hospital. A 
retreat for the sick must have sick people in it ; and among them there will 
be some incurables. 

*9 S. Antony, for example, used to speak in the vernacular of the country : 
the Church, in general, knew only Greek. 

20 It was probably a lively remembrance of the excesses of these fanatics 
which caused Monachism to be so dreaded and hated in the African Church. 
See Gieseler, $96, n. 14. 

21 



482 History of the Church. 

To S. Basil belongs the credit of utilizing the system to a 
greater extent than any one had done before him. He aimed 
s. Basil's at a union of the contemplative life and the active, 
and by bringing the monks into closer relations with 
the city Clergy, he made useful missionaries of them among the 
heathen, and valuable auxiliaries in the war still waged upon the 
Arian heresy. 

As the movement advanced towards the West, it assumed 
more and more of this utilitarian character. There was a whole- 
Monachism some prejudice against its more fantastic features, with 
the West. no g reat fe\\ki in its dreams and miracles. It secured 
a mighty advocate, however, in S. Athanasius, whose exile was 
shared by some Egyptian monks j and, at a later date, in S. 
Jerome. The latter developed it in its harshest form, 21 and was 
soon obliged to retire with his female followers into Palestine. 
S. Ambrose of Milan was equally zealous and more successful. 
The praise of virginity was ever on his tongue : the establish- 
ment of retreats for ascetics of either sex was his constant 
effort. But to win the cordial approbation of the Western 
mind it was necessary that Monachism should prove its mission : 
without ceasing to aspire after works of wonder, it had to show 
a capability for dealing with practical questions, for meeting, in 
fact, some one or other of the pressing wants of the times. 

Its position was secured in this respect, and a field was 
it s opened in which for some centuries it labored almost 

Founder. alone? chiefly by the efforts of S. Martin of Tours, the 
Apostle of the Gallic peasantry. 

This remarkable man, 22 the son of a heathen soldier, born in 
Pannonia, and brought up in Italian Pavia, became a catechu- 
men at ten years of age, and at twelve had set his heart on the 

21 The culture of filth is one of the least pleasant features of ascetic life : 
yet a noble, refined, and educated woman, under the instruction of such a man 
as Jerome, could be brought to regard uncleanliness and squalor as a special 
merit. 

22 His life is written in prose by Sulpicius Severus, the author of two 
books of Sacred History ; and in verse by Paulinus of Nola. 



5. Martin. 483 

life of an anchoret : but being pressed into the army he served 
from his fifteenth to his twentieth year, having re- . 

ceived, the meanwhile, the gift of baptism. It was bom, 

during this part of his career that he gave a famous 
proof of his goodness of heart by sharing his cloak with a beg- 
gar at the gate of Amiens. The next night he saw the Lord 
clothed in the half garment thus bestowed. Having left the 
army he indulged for many years his passion for the ascetic life. 
S. Hilary of Poitiers, his nearest friend, endeavored to entice 
him into Holy Orders, but he would accept no station in the 
Ministry higher than that of an Exorcist. In the persecution 
under Constantius he won the title of Confessor. Auxentius, 
the Arian Bishop, drove him forth from Milan. He betook 
himself to an island in the Tuscan Sea, where he 

He founds 

founded a monastery ; afterwards, on the return of Monas- 

l-ii • • teries. 

Hilary from exile, he established another religious 
house in the neighborhood of Poitiers : the first examples of 
the kind in the Western Church, though the monastic rule of 
life had been introduced by S. Athanasius, and adopted by 
Eusebius of Vercellse and other prominent ecclesiastics. 

The reputation he had acquired for miracles and good works 
secured his election to the episcopate of Tours, in the eighth 
year of the reign of Valentinian and Valens. The 

........ . Bishop 

people were unanimous in their choice, and the Saint, of Tours, 
being decoyed out of his cell by a summons to visit a 
sick woman, was seized and consecrated : some of the prelates, 
however, were shocked at his "vile mien, sordid garments, and 
unkempt hair," and he encountered at their hands a persistent 
opposition. Bad Bishops, 23 it is said, were the only bitter 
enemies he ever had. 

On becoming a Bishop he did not cease to be a monk : he 
lived at first in a cell attached to his Church, afterwards in a 
monastery not far from the city, where some eighty brethren, 

2 3 The opposition between the normal and abnormal — between the reg- 
ular and irregular — between the old and the new — crops out continually in 
monastic history. 



484 History of the Church. 

many of whom were of gentle blood, submitted to a rule which 
Ascetic (unlike that of the Eastern ascetics) excluded manual 
Li f e " labor and left more time for prayer and study. Chosen 

companies of these went with him wherever he went : the Saint 
walking by himself, absorbed in prayer, the rest following in 
groups at a respectful distance. Cities he avoided as much 
as possible. He chose for himself a field where no Gospel 
laborer had been before him. For, as already intimated, the 
mission from Asia in the second century, and the large appoint- 
ment of Bishops under Roman auspices in the third, had evan- 
gelized only the towns and the upper classes in Gaul : the mass 
of the country people were ignorant, rude, and stubborn idol- 
aters. 

Among this class, then, the zealous Bishop labored ; going 
about from place to place with his devoted band, healing the 
New Field sick, it was said, casting out devils, cleansing lepers 
of Labor, ^y a kiss, raising the dead, breaking up the shrines of 
demon-worship, preaching how "men should forsake the pres- 
ent life and give themselves wholly to the Lord Jesus Christ" : 
in short, impressing the rude minds of the peasantry 24 with such 
a sense of Divine grace and power that he seemed in their eyes 
a living miracle, and consequently everything he did appeared 
miraculous. It is worthy of note, that one of the first exam- 

=4 Miracles are so interwoven into his life, that some mention of them 
seems necessary towards understanding the character of his influence. As to 
the reality of these wonders it may be observed, (1) that (on the showing of 
Sulpicius, Dialog, i. 18) they were credited only by the people and by men in 
foreign parts — the Clergy in Gaul were incredulous; (2) the monastic mode 
of life and the monastic mind was (on the showing of the same Sulpicius, De 
Vit. B. M. xxv.) visionary and credulous to an extraordinary degree; (3) S. 
Martin was a miracle of benignity and goodness, and the impression he made 
upon his followers was perfectly overwhelming : see the rich gush of feeling 
with which Sulpicius describes it. De Vit. B. M xxvi. Allowing for these 
facts, we may perhaps explain the miracles of S. Martin, without impeaching 
the veracity of his biographer : at the same time, considering his peculiar 
mission, he may have had tokens of the Divine blessing and favor greater than 
our philosophy is ready to admit. 



5. Martin. 485 

pies of his zeal against superstition was occasioned by a Chris- 
tian, not a heathen, error. An altar near his monastery was 
much frequented, by reason of the relics of some 

Warfare 

martyr supposed to be buried there. But as no one against Su- 
perstition. 
could tell the name of the martyr the Saint became 

sceptical and instituted a searching investigation. His doubts 

were settled by a vision. A "grim and sordid shade" arose 

from the consecrated spot, and announced itself the ghost of a 

robber executed for his crimes. The altar, of course, was 

removed, and " the people were freed from the error of that 

superstition." 

Whether in consequence of the miracles attributed to him, 

or as the natural effect of invincible courage united to a childlike 

simplicity and tenderness of heart, S. Martin experienced less 

opposition at the hands of the pagans than might have 

been expected. On one occasion, when he was de- ov.-rthe 

Pagans. 

molishing a temple, the crowd stood and looked on in 
impotent amazement : on another, a bold assassin was unnerved 
by the Saint's calmly laying bare his neck to the knife. On an- 
other occasion still, he so tamed a savage crowd by the sanctity 
of his preaching that they rose with one accord and destroyed 
their temples. 

Wherever he rooted up idolatry he took care to plant the 
Gospel in its stead : the shrines and temples were replaced by 
churches and monasteries. That these latter did good churches 
service in an age which required a certain roughness as ^asteril's 
well as readiness in those who undertook to reclaim it, planted. 
may be inferred from the honor in which they were held. The 
monks, it is true, introduced not a few superstitions in place of 
the supplanted fables. It may even be said that they substituted 
a Christian, 25 for a heathen, paganism. Yet to any one who 
considers the vileness and atrocity of the latter error, as con- 

2 s Sulpicius gives us a glimpse of the wild dreams of monastic life : 
how one brother thought himself Christ, and even a Bishop was so deluded 
as to fall down and worship him; how another personated John, etc. — cases 
occurring so frequently that Sulpicius conjectured the day o r Antichrist to be 



486 History of the Church. 

trasted with the pure, though visionary, ideal presented by the 
former, the gain to humanity and religion must still appear im- 
mense. Other men, possibly, might have done the 
Service of work better : but, then, three centuries had passed 

the Monks. 

and no other men had arisen to undertake it. The 
learned Clergy were urban in their tastes. While we may sym- 
pathize, therefore, to a certain extent, with those prelates who 
were disgusted at S. Martin's "sordid raiment and unkempt 
hair," we may at the same time thank God that the conversion 
of the poor pagans was not left to such prelates. Had it been 
so left, the struggle with barbarism might have resulted in 
darker ages than those to which the world was destined. 

But to return to the good Bishop : much as he avoided cities 
and the Court, his light was of that kind which could not be 

hidden. As the Apostle and patron of the poor, he 
and the was obliged for their sakes to stand before kings. In 

Court. 

the case of Valentinian, who, though an orthodox 
ruler, was prejudiced against the Saint by Justina, his Arian 
wife, he had almost to force his way into the palace : but, when 
he at last gained admission, the honest prince recognized at 
once his superior merit, and granted him all and even more than 

he desired. With Maximus, the usurper of the Gauls 

A.D. 383. 

and the murderer of Gratian, he found it more diffi- 
cult to deal in a friendly way, and for some time declined all 
communion with him. The tyrant succeeded, however, in jus- 
tifying himself, and the Saint once or twice consented to dine 
in the palace. On one of these occasions, when Maximus 
handed him the cup, intending to do himself the grace of 
drinking after him, the Bishop tasted the wine and then passed 
it on to a certain Presbyter : the lowliest minister of God was 
superior in his eyes to the loftiest monarch. 

But it was particularly irksome to S. Martin to associate with 
the hard and worldly prelates of the usurper's Court. Cruelty 

at hand. De Vit. B. M. xxv. To balance this, there were many noble and 
beautiful dreams, which attained their apotheosis in Dante's Divine Comedy. 



5. Martin. 487 

in all shapes he deeply abhorred : the very birds and beasts were 

under his protection, and he is even said to have per- 

formed miracles in their behalf. In the same way, he Goodness 

of Heart. 

set a high value on the spirit of forgiveness, and re- 
garded the power of absolution as the choicest gem in the 
crown of the Ministry. When the Devil once tried to argue 
him into the belief that there were some sins too grievous to 
be remitted, he answered the arch-tempter : "If thou, O wretch, 
wouldst cease from hunting men, and repent thee of thy deeds, 
I would promise the Lord's pardon even to thee ! " 26 There was 
little of this temper among the Court Clergy. On the contrary, 
it was through the influence of these, headed by Idacius and 
Ithacius, that sentence of death was pronounced, and a death- 
warrant signed, against the deluded followers of the heretic 
Priscillian. 27 S. Martin pleaded hard for a reversal Repleads 
of the sentence. When he failed to obtain it, he even ^Itrf*/ 
refused to commune any longer with his cruel col- Prtscllhan - 
leagues ; and though he subsequently yielded the point, in 
order to prevent further bloodshed, which Maximus threatened 
in case he should persist, yet his conscience was uneasy under 
such a burden ; an Angel rebuked him ; his wonder-working 
power seemed to be going from him ; and, to recover his wonted 
peace of mind, he thenceforth held aloof, not only 

' ., , He holds 

from the offending prelates, but from all Councils and aloof from 

Councils. 

assemblies in which they were likely to be present. It 
is honorable to the Church of that age that his protest met the 
warm approbation of Ambrose of Milan, Siricius of Rome, and 
not a few others. 

S. Martin left numerous disciples, and his example became 

26 Sulpic. Sever. Dialog, iii. 15. 

2 7 In this case the plea of the Bishops was as strong as any that was ever 
made for religious persecution. The Priscillianists were condemned (1) by a 
civil magistrate ; (2) not for heresy, but for alleged filthy and wicked prac- 
tices ; (3) the persecuting prelates (fearing scandal) avoided all open com- 
plicity in pronouncing the sentence of death ; (4) the sentence was confirmed 
and carried out by the secular arm. Sulpic. Sever. Sacr. Hist. ii. 65. 



488 History of the Church. 

the law of missionary work for many ages after him. It was, 
in fact, not merely an adaptation to the wants of a class of men 
His Exam- which lay beyond the reach of ordinary methods : it 
of Mission was an honest an d wonderfully persistent effort to 
Work. avoid the great danger to which a triumphant religion 
is exposed. This was beautifully illustrated by one of the many 
visions that occurred to the Saint. For, on one occasion, the 
Devil came before him in the form of Christ, clothed in purple 
and gold and celestial splendor. The Saint looked hard at the 
bright phantom, but spake not a word. " Dost thou not know 
me, Martin?" said the tempter — " why art thou silent in the 
presence of thy Lord?" He quietly replied, "lam looking 
for the print of the nails!" Thereupon the fiend vanished, 
and a foul odor filled the cell, showing plainly enough that in- 
credulity, 28 in this instance at least, was not without its warrant 
and blessing. 

And such, with due allowance for the trials of the age in 

which they lived, was the spirit and temper of the monks in 

general. The regal magnificence in which State- 

The Print b to to 

of the Nails alliance had robed the Church, could not but cause 

loo k t d for. . . 

perplexity to earnest and simple souls. Yet they durst 
not condemn the splendor in itself : they could only look fixedly 
and wistfully at the dubious phenomenon, in hopes of some 
better sign of the Divinity within. And they looked, in the 
main, with honest and steady eyes. They magnified the Cross, 
they searched perseveringly for the stigmata of the Passion. 
Even when self-denial made them popular, and popularity 
brought wealth, and wealth bred corruption, so that the print 
of the nails could no longer be seen : yet, ever as this hap- 
pened, the old spirit revived, reform began anew, 29 the wistful 

28 A commentator ( Geo. Hornius) here remarks : " This story savors of 
unbelieving Thomas." De Vit. B. Martin, xxv. 

2 9 The history of Monachism is a continuous chain of efforts at reform — 
Martin of Tours in one age, Martin Luther in another — in every link of which 
we may discern the same curious mixture of rapt enthusiasm and audacious 
common sense. 



Church and State. 489 

and doubting look of S. Martin was repeated, and splendor 
vanished with a " foul odor," to be replaced by fresh efforts at 
primitive simplicity, with zeal again and again awakened for the 
preaching of the Gospel to the poor. 

Such, then, was the instrument prepared in the fourth cen- 
tury for that missionary work, involving toil and self- Mission of 
denial almost without a parallel, by which gradually theMonks - 
the rude sires of modern Europe were reclaimed from paganism, 
and the foundations of a new era of Christian progress were 
slowly and laboriously compacted. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CHURCH AND STATE. — AMBROSE AND THEODOSIUS. 

It fell to the lot of Theodosius to crown the work of his prede- 
cessors in the establishment of the Church as the re- 

. . Position of 

ligion of the Empire. He gave it that position in ref- the church 

r> ii« it settled. 

erence to the State, to heathenism and dissent, 1 which 
it afterwards retained, and beyond which it made only occa- 
sional and temporary advances. 

Neither Constantine nor his sons had attempted much more, 
with regard to the old religion, than to discourage, or, First 

, . r rn-, • 1 Christian 

perhaps, in some matters to reform it. I heir theory, Emperors. 
at least, was that of toleration. 

Christians, indeed, were reinstated 2 in rights of which they 

1 Gieseler's Ch. H. §§ 75~ 79 (Smith's Am. Ed.); Rudiger de Stat, et 
Conditio. Paganorum, etc. ; Beugnot, Hist, de la Destruct. du Pagan, en 
Occident; De Broglie, Hist, de HEglise, etc., I. i. chap. ii. ; Cod. Theo- 
dos., etc. 

2 Euseb. Vit. Constant, ii. 20-24, 3°-44; iv« J 8, 19; Sozom. i. 8, 9; 
Cod. Theodos. xvi. t. 2, 1. 3, 6; Cod. Justin, vii. t. 22, 1. 3. 

21* 



49° History of the Church. 

had been robbed, and for posts of trust and honor were pre- 
Priviieges ferred to heathen. Churches were built, and the 

of the 

church. Clergy in part maintained, at the cost of the several 
cities. Ecclesiastics were exempted from certain taxes, and 
Exemp- from offices involving pecuniary burdens : exemp- 
tions which soon began to crowd the lower grades of 
the Ministry, and had in course of time to be modified. The 
Church was allowed to receive legacies. In special honor of 
the Gospel, the punishment of crucifixion was aban- 
doned ; there was a repeal of the old laws against celi- 
bacy ; the manumission of slaves, once a purely civil act, was 
elevated to the dignity of a religious rite, by allowing it to be 
The Lord's performed in church. Finally, Sunday was made a 
Day ' Feast of universal obligation : all work and traffic 

were to cease thereon, save only the necessary labors of agricul- 
ture. In the army it was to be observed by a prayer to the 
Supreme Being. 

On the other hand, as sovereign Pontiff of the State relig- 
ion, an office not easily abandoned by a prince tenacious of his 
rights, the Emperor discountenanced, in " the old 

Heathen to > i > 

Abuses persuasion," 3 all that was licentious, malific, or of ill 

corrected. 

example, and for that purpose set on foot a commis- 
sion to inquire into abuses. 4 Hence temples of Venus were 
destroyed in Libanus and the Phoenician Heliopolis, and the 
same fate befell a shrine of ^Esculapius at JEgze. Priestcraft 
was exposed by breaking up images and bringing to light the 
machinery within ; secret sacrifices were forbidden, and magic 
or divination for evil ends, though for the cure of sickness or 
Chastity the averting of storms it was still allowed. The Chris- 
honored. ^ an v i rtue f chastity was honored by extremely severe 
penalties on its opposites. Gladiator-shows and other immoral 

3 Vetus mos, praeterita usurpatio : so Constantine called it. 

^Euseb. Vit. Con. ii. 44-48, 56, 60; iii. 54-58; iv. 16, 23, 25; Cod. 
Theodos. ix. t. 16, 1. 1, 3; xii. t. 1, 1. 21; t. 5, 1. 2; xvi. t. 10, 1. 4; Beugnot, 
Hist, de la Destruct. du Pagan. 



Church and State. 49 1 

exhibitions were prohibited in New Rome : the old city, in this 
and other matters, was left very much to its own de- sacrifices 
vices. The Emperor, the meanwhile, showed himself allowed ' 
a friend of religion in general, by tolerating stated and public 
sacrifices, and by insisting in cases of emergency upon due con- 
sultation of the Haruspices. 

It was Constantine's wish, in short, that men should not 
throw off such religion as they had until they were Dread 0/ 
ready for something better : he dreaded atheism more Athe7Sfn - 
than superstition, and his hostility to the latter hardly went 
beyond those bounds which had long since been set by the 
admirable good sense of Roman legislation. 

His sons were somewhat more zealous, but their efforts were 
directed in the main by the same principle. Chris- Growing 
tianity, in fact, needed little help in the way of new ZeaL 

enactments. The old laws, fairly carried out, would do away 
with those rites that ministered to vice ; and these being done 
away, the rest of the heathen fabric would fall of itself, sacrifices 
Constantius, however, prohibited sacrifices, on penalty f° rbidden - 
of death : an edict little observed and not very rigorously en- 
forced, especially in Rome and Alexandria. But as idolatry 
became unfashionable, retiring to rural districts under the name 
of paganism, the old shrines lost their votaries ; and Christians, 
heathenized in temper by the evils of the times, began Destruction 
to show their zeal by acts of violence. Hence numer- °f Tem ^ les - 
ous cases of fierce iconoclasm, winked at by Constantius, but 
severely punished by the Apostate his successor. Hence, also, 
a longer lease of life to idolatry among those inveterate con- 
servatives, the literary class. 

The brief reaction under Julian taught a lesson of modera- 
tion which was not altogether fruitless. Jovian was a Magic Rites 
Catholic, but tolerated dissent. Valentinian and Va- t unished - 
lens forbade bloody sacrifices, and found it necessary to break 
up the nests of treason which sheltered themselves under the 
name of philosophy : magic was prohibited, sophists were ban- 
ished or put to death, books on occult science were collected 



49 2 History of the Church. 

and destroyed. On the other hand, a necessity had arisen for 
The church pruning the luxuriance of the Church. Valentinian 
.rame . enacteo i ^^ ecclesiastics should not haunt the houses 
of widows or female wards, nor should they accept donations or 
bequests from women connected with them by spiritual ties : an 
edict upon which S. Jerome remarked, "I complain not of the 
law, but I grieve that we should have deserved it." 

All these Emperors lived and reigned the acknowledged 
heads of heathenism ; and, when they died, were duly enrolled, 
Gratian by a still heathen Senate, among the gods. Gratian 
r f{tie e o/ he was tne fi rst t0 reject the title of Pontifex Maximus. 
Pontiff. £r e a | SQ rem oved the altar of Victory from the Senate- 
house, and deprived the temples, priests, and Vestal Virgins of 
their remaining immunities and of all revenues from the State. 

For favors of this kind the Church paid dearly in the sacri- 
fice of her independence : the Emperor combining in his own 
person the prestige of the old pontificate, and what- 

Loss of x 

Liberty to ever of influence in Church affairs belonged in the first 

the Church. 

ages to the Christian laity. Hence an undue inter- 
ference in matters both of discipline and of doctrine. Letters 
of admonition addressed to the leading Bishops ; Councils 
called, moderated, influenced, approved, upheld by legal pains; 
judicial decisions quashed, or modified, or new trials ordered; 
Episcopal elections interfered with ; Creeds, orthodox or the 

reverse, forced upon recusants : such things were, in- 
Encroach- deed, excesses of that episcopate from without which 

Constantine assumed, and they were more or less pro- 
tested against, but they were not the less dangerous on that 
account. They indicated, in fact, a great and undefined power, 
the encroachments of which might prove fatal to the spiritual 
character of the Church. The good sense of Valentinian led 
him to moderation in the exercise of this power. "Let the 
priests," said he, "attend to Church affairs, and assemble where 
they will." Gratian also saw the evils resulting from imperial 
interference, and willingly sanctioned that Canon of Sardica, 
which, with a view to greater equity in synodical decisions, 



Church and State. 493 

lodged a power of granting new trials on appeal in the hands of 
Julius the Roman Bishop. 

Nor were the encroachments by any means confined to one 
side. 3 Episcopal arbitration, which served in the first Encroach- 
centuries to keep Christians from going to law before m clu>rh 
the heathen, continued under Constantine and his sue- Power. 
cessors to save many sheep from the sharp shears of the Roman 
Courts, and elevated the standard of equity and mercy. The 
custom grew into a law ; so that finally the Bishops exercised a 
patronage of all oppressed and dependent persons ; were the 
sole judges in civil and (in course of time) even of criminal 
cases, where the Clergy, monks, or nuns were concerned ; and 
were allowed a sort - of equity jurisdiction in general. The 
effect of this was to soften the harder features of Ro- 

Effect on 

man law. 6 The relations of parents to children, of the Roman 

Laws. 

husbands to wives, of masters to slaves, of creditors 
to debtors, of patrons to clients, were gradually improved on 
the side of humanity. The right of sanctuary also was trans- 
ferred from the temples to the churches. On the whole, how- 
ever, the Church encroached upon the province of the State 
less by altering the laws than by exercising boldly the power of 
intercession : a power which did much good, though in times 
of polemical excitement it was occasionally abused. 

But to attain a high ground in relations of this kind re- 
quired, on the Church's part, a spirited struggle: a struggle 
not, as in previous cases, with heretical princes only, 
who were amenable to no law, but with a wise and of church 

o • an d State. 

powerful and orthodox sovereign. Such a sovereign 

was found in Theodosius : the ability for such a struggle in S. 

Ambrose of Milan. 

s On this section, see Gieseler's Ch. Hist. §$91, 92, 105 (Smith's Am. ed.). 

6 De Broglie well observes : " La loi civile .... devient moins dure 
mais plus austere. Elle condamne plus souvent et punit moins severement." 
He also justly appeals to the present and past of Europe to show that Con 
stantine's policy, with regard to slavery and such like things, was wise* 
than would have been a course of more sudden and sweeping reformation. 



494 History of the Church. 

This famous prelate, 7 whose election has been already no- 
ticed, 8 was of a family that stood among the foremost in worldly 
Ambrose rank, while it was further graced, in a way that the 
of Man. g a j nt esteemed more highly, by the spiritual nobility 
of martyrdom. His childhood, it is said, gave tokens of future 
greatness. A swarm of bees once alighted upon his lips, and, 
going in and out his mouth, soared thence into the sky, till they 
became invisible. At another time he played Bishop in his 
family, showing his sense of the dignity of the office by hold- 
ing out his hand for his devout sister to kiss. It was an omen 
still more striking, and creditable to the character of the Epis- 
copate in those days, that when he was appointed Governor of 
Liguria, Probus, who conveyed to him the orders of the Em- 
peror, dismissed him with the words : " Go and govern, not as 
a magistrate or judge, but rather as a Bishop." 

His sense of the high character of the Episcopate accorded 
with this charge. Preparing himself for its duties by prayer 
HisStudies, an d fasting and study of God's Word, he asked, 9 " not 
a.d. 374. t | ie gi orv f Apostles, not the grace of Prophets, not 
the virtue of Evangelists, not the circumspection of Pastors, but 
that which S. Paul places last, the painstaking diligence of a 
learner and a teacher ; for he who teaches faithfully is in the 
best way of learning." The prayer was granted. In his case, as 
in that of S. Cyprian and others suddenly called to the Bishopric 
from the midst of worldly cares, nothing is more wonderful 
than the rapidity with which, amid the duties of an office that 
pressed him night and day, his mind became saturated, as it 
were, with the spirit and the letter of the Holy Scriptures. It 
was a knowledge that seemed intuitive rather than acquired. 
That Orient light of the Divine day-spring had but to dawn 
upon such a mind, to awaken all its chords to a delightful har- 

7 D. Ambros. Mediolan. Op. Omn. with a Life by Paulinus prefixed; 
Socrat. iv. 30; v. 11 ; Theod. v. 13, 17, 18; Sozom. vii. 25; Tillemont, torn. 
x. part 1 ; Cave, Lives of the Fathers, vol. iii. 

s Page 483. 

9 S. Ambros. Officiorum, i. 1. 



Ambrose and Theodosius. 495 

mony : the reading of the Word was not so much a study as a 
blissful inebriation. 

This was the more remarkable in S. Ambrose, because, in 
the spirit of the true Roman man of business, he lived His public 
in the public eye : when not engaged in the sacred 
offices of the Sanctuary, he sat all day with open doors, his 
time and thoughts and sympathies at every man's disposal. 

With such a leader, the orthodox cause was not long in gain- 
ing the ascendancy in Milan. Commended by saintliness of 
life ; by practical ability long known and trusted ; by His 

an intentness upon the ends he had in view, which was "fi uence - 
not over scrupulous with regard to means ; by an eloquence 
grave, simple, and sincere, yet occasionally florid, in which 
Latin good sense was illuminated with the tints of Oriental im- 
agination ; by a charity and generosity, signalized in one in- 
stance when he sold the Church plate for the ransom of Chris- 
tian captives : 10 Ambrose became all-powerful with the Emperor 
and with the people ; Auxentius, his Arian predecessor, was al- 
most forgotten ; the Divinity of the Word and of the Spirit 
shone out from the cloud of its temporary eclipse ;" and, in 
short, Milan, like Constantinople, was recovered to the Nicene 
Faith. 

So things continued during the reign of Gratian. Under 
Valentinian II., the boy successor of that prince, a counter-influ- 
ence came from Justina, the Empress-mother, a bigoted Hostility 
leader of the Court faction, which still adhered to of ? ustina ' 
Arianism. Not long before the death of Gratian she had at- 
tempted to set a Bishop of her party over the Church of Sir- 
mium ; and the people in that city were favorable to her views. 
Ambrose interfered. With no other authority in the 

A.D. 380. 

premises than zeal for a good cause, he repaired to the 
contested field ; took his seat in Church upon the Episcopal 

10 After the disastrous defeat and death of Valens by the Goths at Had- 
rianople. 

11 He took a leading part in the Council of Aquileia (A.D. 381), in which 
Palladius and other Arians were condemned. 



49 ^ History of the Church. 

throne ; paralysed by a word 12 the ferocity of an Arian virgin 
who attempted to drag him thence ; and, finally, overawed the 
assembly, and secured the ordination of a Catholic Bishop. 
Such things could happen only at a time when Episcopal vigor 
was more needed than scrupulous conformity to the canons. 

Of a less exceptionable character was the ardor with which 
he exploded the arguments of Symmachus, the eloquent prefect 
Contest-mith of Rome, who presented to the young Emperor an 
symmachus. appeal from the Senate in behalf of the Vestal Vir- 
gins and for the restoration of that altar of Victory which 
Gratian had removed. There was a party in the Court which 
favored the appeal. 13 But S. Ambrose no sooner learned of the 
movement, than he interposed with a remonstrance addressed 
to Valentinian. The request, he urged, was an insult to Chris- 
tianity, and altogether unreasonable. Its only excuse was zeal 
for demon-worship, which ought to provoke the faithful to still 
greater zeal for the Truth. In fine, if the Emperor should see 
fit to gratify the pagans in this matter, he might come to Church 
again, but he would find no Bishop there, or one, at all events, 
who would stand ready to resist him and to reject his offerings. 
By appeals of this kind the attempt of Symmachus 
was defeated : according to an epigram 14 of the day, 
" Victory abandoned her adorer, and by deserting to Ambrose, 
showed that she loved her enemies better than her friends." 

But the influence of Justina was steadily increasing in the 
Palace. The Court officers, chiefly Goths and Arians, were 

12 " Unworthy as I am of the priesthood, it befits neither your sex nor 
your profession to lay hands upon a Bishop, however contemptible he may 
be." The virgin, it is said, died and was buried the next day. 

T 3 In this contest, it was a point on the heathen side, at a time when even 
Christians were not superior to the dread of omens, that the Barbarians were 
pressing the Empire on every side, that Roman arms were losing their pres- 
tige, that Terminus was retreating : that, in short, with the decline of the 
worship of Victory, there was acorres ponding withdrawal of her presence 
and power. 

x 4 Dicendi palmam Victoria tollit amico : 
Transit ad Ambrosium, plus favet ira dese. — Ennodius. * 



Ambrose and Theodosius. 497 

hostile to Ambrose, and more than one plot was formed to over- 
throw him. Among other attempts, there was a plan r> cma ndsof 
to spirit him away from his stronghold in Milan and the Conr: - 
send him into exile; but the scheme recoiled upon the head of 
its inventor. About the same time he was summoned to the 
Palace, 15 and it was demanded of him in full consistory 

... A.D. 385. 

that he should give up the Portian Basilica, a church 
in the suburbs, for the religious services of the Arians. He per- 
emptorily refused. The courtiers tried in vain to persuade or 
overawe him. The people, the meanwhile, got wind of the 
matter ; beset the Palace doors ; defied the military ; so that 
finally the original demand had to be changed into a request 
that Ambrose would go forth and appease the tumult. On the 
next day the demand was renewed, with the addition that he 
should yield the New Basilica, a larger church within the city 
walls. He answered that he had no power to give, nor Ambrose 
the Emperor to receive it : the sovereign could not re/uses. 
take the house of a mere citizen without leave, much less had 
he a right to seize the House of God. "But the Emperor," 
the courtiers argued, "has power unlimited, and everything is 
his." The Saint replied, " Let him at all events submit himself 
to the Lord : we render unto Caesar the things which are Csesar's, 
and unto God the things that are God's : to Caesar tribute, to 
God the Church : Caesar can have no right to the temple of 
God." "But," it was further urged, "the Court has surely a 
right to hold one Basilica of its own : will you deny the 
Emperor the liberty to go to church?" " The Court has no 
right," the Bishop answered, "to be joined to an adulteress: 
and she is an adulteress who is not the lawful spouse of Christ. 
It is honor enough to the Emperor to be called a son of the 
Church : the Emperor is within the Church, not over it." 

t s S. Ambros. Epistol. xxi. Serm. c. Auxent. 29, 30, 35, 36. The an- 
swers given by S. Ambrose, on the three several occasions of this narrative, 
are not very clearly dated in the Epistles xx. and xxi., or in the Sermon at- 
tached to Ep. xxi. ; but as they were substantially the same in each instance, 
I have thrown them together in the opening of the trouble. 



498 History of the Church, 

These things occurred on the three days immediately pre- 
ceding Holy Week. The Palm Sunday that . followed was a 
e^reat day in Milan : and the excitement continued, 

The Contest J 

/or the with frequent messages between the Palace and the 

Basilicas. 

Church, until the ensuing Thursday. 16 Ambrose was 
in the Old Church all day — retiring to his own house by night, 
that the Emperor might seize him, if he pleased — weeping, 
praying, expounding the Psalms and Lessons, following step by 
step the wondrous drama of that week as recorded in the Gos- 
pels and noted in the Church services, drawing comfort from the 
examples of Jonah and of Job, as they came up in the regular 
Lessons, and denouncing the evil spirit of Job's wife, Herodias, 
Jezebel and others of Eve's daughters. Occasionally he sighed, 
as he received (like Job) the tidings of new evils, or heard 
sounds of a swelling tumult from the direction of the New 
scene in the Church. But the flock immediately under his eye 
oidchurch. wag q uiet and con fldent. They had adopted as their 
watchword, "We pray, but do not fight ; we pray, but are not 
afraid ! " The Bishop, in like manner, was determined to keep 
still. When told that an Arian priest had fallen into the hands of 
the Catholics, he sent some of his Clergy to the rescue ; but to all 
entreaties that he would go forth himself he turned a deaf ear : 
"Even Christ," he declared, "would not give Himself to the 
people, lest they should make Him a king." So again : " It is 
for me not to excite the people, to calm them is in the hand of 
God." And so again, addressing himself to some of the Gothic 
officers of the Court, "Is it for this the Roman soil received 
you, that you should become disturbers of the public peace?" 
Such was the state of things in the Old Church. 

About the New Basilica the danger of a tumult was most 
imminent, especially on Wednesday. A veil had been put up 
The New at the door, sequestrating the building to the service 
church. Q £ tne E m p eron The citizens had been forbidden to 
leave their houses ; the more prominent among them had been 
cast into prison and mulcted with heavy fines : a hardship felt 

16 S. Ambros. Epist. xx. <id Marcellin. Soror. 



Ambrose and Theodosius, 499 

the more keenly because in the Holy Week it was customary to 
release all debtors. Still the Catholic crowd swarmed in over- 
flowing numbers through the streets, and filled the Basilica to 
its utmost capacity. It needed but a leader to bring on a riot, 
perhaps a revolution. A band of children tore the imperial 
veil. The military stood about, undecided what to 

J . ' The 

do, or even fraternizing with the people. Soon a Soldiers 

submit. 

rumor went abroad that the Bishop had given orders 
to excommunicate them : many of them, in consequence, hur- 
ried off to the Old Basilica and made their submission. 

This gave a new turn to the exhortations of S. Ambrose and 
to the Psalm for the day. " O God ! the heathen have come into 
Thine inheritance — you heard it, brethren, in this morning's 
service, and you responded in bitterness of soul. The The Psalm 
heathen have come : aye, more than the heathen ! The f° rtheda y- 
Goths have come, and men of diverse nations have come : with 
arms have they come and poured into the Sanctuary and seized 
it. So we thought in our unwisdom, and in our ignorance of 
God's counsel we sorely grieved about it. But O the depths 
of the oracles of the Spirit ! The heathen have come, but into 
Thine i?iheritance have they come. They have come heathen, 
but they have become Christian men. They came to wrest the 
heritage from us, but they have stayed to be co-heirs. Our 
enemies are our defenders, our adversaries are our allies. God 
hath made peace in His place : He hath broken the horns of 
the bows, the shield, the sword, and the battle ! " 

Through Wednesday night the Saint remained in church, 
finding it impossible to make his way dut without vio- The Court 
lence : but on Thursday the Court capitulated and a yields. 
truce was effected. The soldiers were withdrawn from the Ba- 
silica : the citizens who had been seized were released, and the 
fines imposed upon them were remitted. But amid the general 
rejoicing, Calligonus, the captain of the guard, still ventured to 
mutter to S. Ambrose, "If you despise Valentinian, I will take 
off your head : " to which the Saint replied, "You will act like 
a eunuch, and I will suffer like a Bishop." 



500 History of the Church. 

The contest was renewed the next year 17 under the auspices 

of an Arian prelate, who, having in some way brought his name 

into ill repute, had changed it from Mercurinus to Aux- 

renewd, entius, without, however, any change for the better in 

A.D. 386. 

his character: as S. Ambrose said, "he had put off 
wolf and had put on wolf, and if he had changed his name a 
third time it would have meant wolf still." This time the Por- 
tian Basilica was seized, and the Bishop was commanded to 
leave the city. He would have felt it his duty to obey, had he 
not known that the object of the Court was merely to get rid of 
him that they might rob the church. Besides which, he felt a 
tender solicitude for the soul of the young Emperor. The 
prince should not incur the guilt of Ahab so long as afaithful 

Naboth was alive to prevent it. Night and day, then, 
in the the church, crowded with a dense mass of people, 

Church. 

barred against all intruders, and hemmed 111 by the 
military, resounded with psalms and hymns 18 and spiritual 
songs : for the opportunity was seized to institute vigils, after 
the manner of S. Basil in the East, and to imitate the Oriental 
style of antiphonal 19 chanting. Among those who watched with 
interest the progress of this struggle, was one great soul, just 
escaping at that time from the meshes of error, the future S. 
Augustine. Among the vigil-keepers was another great soul, S 
Monica, the mother of Augustine. The strife was several days 
prolonged, but the Court at length had to yield. It contributed 

to this result, that, the Ambrosian Church being ded- 

Relirs • 1 , 

of the icated at this period, and the Bishop desiring to sanc- 

Martyrs. l . 

tify the altar by placing under it the body of some 
saint, the remains of two martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius, were 
opportunely discovered ; and a blind man, having touched the 
relics, was restored to sight. 20 The miracle was bruited abroad 

*7 S. Ambros. Epistol. xxi. xxii. ; Orat. c. Auxent. ; S. Augustin. Confess. 
ix. 15, 16; Paulin. Ambros. Vita. 

18 S. Ambrose himself composed hymns for the occasion. 

x 9 The example was soon followed (says Paulinus) throughout the West. 

20 The miracle rests on the very explicit testimony of S. Ambrose, and S 



Ambrose and Theodosms. 501 

through the city, and enthusiasm ran so high as to sweep away 
the faint remains of Arian opposition. 

While these things were going on, the power of Maximus 
the Gallic tyrant was steadily growing in the West : so that 
after some attempts at negotiation , Valentinian fled to 

. Theodosms 

Thessalonica and placed himself under the protection in Milan, 

. . A.D. 388. 

of the great Theodosms. War ensued ; Maximus was 
defeated ; Theodosius came to Milan. When he entered the 
church to give thanks for his victory, he stood, as emperors in 
the East were accustomed to do, within that part of the sacred 
building reserved to the Clergy. 21 S. Ambrose sent his Deacon 
and required him to withdraw. The Emperor took the rebuke 
in admirable temper, and thanked the Bishop for teaching him 
that " though purple might make an emperor, it could not make 
a priest." 

It was not long before occasions arose for other lessons, one 
of which, it must be confessed, was of a very questionable char- 
acter. The Christians of Callinicus had burned a Jew- C ase of the 
ish synagogue, by the order of their Bishop. 22 Theo- s ^ na ^°^ ue - 
dosius very properly commanded the Bishop to rebuild it. But 
when S. Ambrose heard of the order he was thrown into "such 
a heat as he had never known before " : he could not look at 
the matter from a political point of view ; he saw in it only a 
commander giving aid and comfort to the enemy — a brave sol- 
dier punished for burning the enemy's magazines. To be silent 

Augustine; also on that of Paulinus, the biographer of S. Ambrose. S. Am- 
bros. Epistol. xxii. ; Serm. de invent. Corp. SS. G. et Protas. ; S. Augustin. 
Confess, ix. 16; Serm. 318, 286; De Civit. Dei, xxii. 8. 

21 This incident Theodoret places later ; but it seems to come more nat- 
urally in connection with the first arrival of Theodosius. 

22 S. Ambrose (Ep. xl.) seems to think it possible that the Bishop might 
tiot have ordered it : for though he had confessed to the fact, his confession 
might have been "the blessed lie" of a man inculpating himself, to shield 
others or to obtain the crown of martyrdom. Consequently, the Emperor was 
much to blame for putting so strong a temptation in the way of a Bishop. 
This Epistle is altogether a most remarkable specimen of the sophistry of 
passion. 



502 History of the Church. 

under such circumstances was to incur the guilt of " sacrilege : " 
it was to endanger the Emperor's salvation ; it was to give 
people ground for believing that there was no Bishop in Milan, 
or one, at all events, who dared not do his duty. Seeing things 
in this light, Ambrose wrote to Theodosius, charitably 
Emperor hoping (at the end of his letter) that he might not be 

yields. . . 

obliged to speak openly in Church. In this hope he 
was disappointed. So he finally felt obliged to preach at the 
great monarch ; and when preaching failed, he refused to pro- 
ceed with the service unless the Emperor would give his word to 
recall the obnoxious order. Theodosius yielded, and the burner 
of the synagogue went unpunished. 

The Saint was not so successful when he tried to stay the 
Emperor's rage 23 against the wicked populace of Thessalonica. 
Outrage The crime of that people was certainly atrocious. For 
"ahnica no better cause than a refusal, on the part of Botheric 
a.d. 390. t ] ie commander of the forces in Illyricum, to release 
a certain pet of the race-course, a notorious charioteer impris- 
oned for a crime of the most infamous description, a bloody 
tumult had occurred in which the commander and several offi- 
cers had been barbarously murdered. The Emperor was angry 
enough to dissemble his anger ; he seemed to yield to the en- 
treaties of the Bishop : but through the influence of other coun- 
sellors, and possibly from a feeling of pique at the frequency of 
episcopal interference, 24 orders were issued secretly that seven 

thousand of the Thessalonicans should atone in their 

The 

EmperoSs blood the crime of the populace. Second thoughts 

Revenge. . ' 

led to a countermand of the edict, but it came too 
late. Three hours the sword raged in the circus of the doomed 
city, and the tale of victims was complete. When S. Ambrose 

2 3 The Emperor's heat of temper, with his readiness, nevertheless, to 
listen to reason, had been recently shown (a.d. 387) in connection with a 
sedition at Antioch. See Theod. v. 19, 20. 

2 4 In his letter on this subject, S. Ambrose alludes to the impression that 
he knew too much about affairs in the Palace, and apologizes for it Epis- 
tol. li. 



Ambrose and Theodosius. 503 

heard the fearful news, there was no such " heat" as in the syn- 
agogue transaction : it was rather a sickening and sinking of the 
soul. He could not bear to see the Emperor's face. Pleading 
illness, he retired into the country, and wrote thence an epistle, 
sober, quiet, affectionate, tenderly reproachful, and 
mildly apologetic, a model of that tact which only Ambrose to 

. . . Theodosius. 

true feeling can inspire. 25 But in all its " meekness 
of wisdom" there was no concealment of its meaning. The 
Emperor had sinned like David : like David he must repent. 
The devil had begrudged him the crowning grace of clemency, 
and had plucked it from him : he must recover it at once in the 
only way permitted. " For my part," the Saint added, " I have 
no reproach to make. I am not angry, I am only afraid. I 

dare not offer the Sacrifice if you assist at it The Lord 

Himself hath expressly forbidden it. The very night when I 
was preparing to leave the city, pressed with anxious cares, I 
saw you in a vision coming to the Church, and no power was 
left me to proceed with the sacred service. ' ' 

In spite of the warning the Emperor went to Church. 26 The 
Bishop met him at the gate, took hold of his purple robe, and 
said, in the hearing of all the people, "Stand back! p enan ceof 
How dare you lift up in prayer hands steeped in the Theodosius - 
blood of innocents ? How receive in such hands the most 
sacred Body of our Lord ? How carry His precious Blood to a 
mouth whence issued the word of fury? Depart and repent. 
Submit to the bonds of discipline : the bonds which alone can 
restore you to health." Theodosius submitted. Eight months 
after, when Christmas-tide approached, he shut himself up in 
his palace, mourned bitterly, and shed floods of tears. "The 
House of God is open to slaves and beggars : but to me the 
Church is closed, and so are the gates of Heaven ! " His 

At last "indulgence" was accorded to his prayers, Restoration - 
the sincerity of his repentance being proved by an edict, equally 

2 5 The contrast between this and the Synagogue Epistle is very striking. 
Ep. li. 

26 Theod. v. 18; Sozom. vii. 25. 



504 History of the Church. 

honorable to himself and to the prelate who required it, that 
there should be thenceforward an interval of thirty days between 
every sentence of death and its final confirmation. On this con- 
dition he was released from his bonds and allowed to enter the 
sacred place. 

Under such a sovereign, instructed by such a pastor, the 

Triumph of triumph of Christianity could not be delayed much 

chm longer : heathenism rapidly retired from its high places 

in the cities, and became, in the strict sense of the word, a 

"pagan" superstition. 

Even the Senate began to give way, and wherever their hearts 
might be, 27 their "feet," at all events, had to "follow the opinion 
Severity of the Emperor." Severe edicts went forth against all 
"fagans, forms of idolatry. Symmachus again pleaded in vain 
a.d. 391-394- f or the Vestals, the priests, and for discarded Victory. 
Not only were the expenses of sacrifices no longer defrayed out 
of the public treasury, but the heathen were even forbidden to 
go near the temples. It had been well had the same prohibi- 
tion been extended to Christians ; but as it was not, zeal against 
idolatry began to run riot, and disgraceful scenes of violence 
The were of frequent occurrence. The great temple of 

erafief.m. g era pi Sj U p 0n the immunity of which the very exist- 
ence of the world was thought to depend, 28 thus perished in 
Alexandria : but earth and sky were not shaken by its fall, nor 
even was the Nile stayed from its accustomed overflow ; on the 
contrary, as the crowd stood around in trembling expectation, a 
swarm of rats ran from the shattered image of the god, and the 
superstition 29 was exploded in a peal of laughter. By events of 

2 7 " Qua vocat egregii sententia principis, illuc 

Libera turn pedibus turn corde frequentia transit." 

Prudent, in Symmach. i. 699, ss. The same Senate, however, decreed the 
customary divine honors to Theodosius, upon his death. 

28 Theod. v. 22; Socrat. v. 16. 

2 9 Even Christians found it hard to shake off these heathen superstitions. 
Thus, S. Ambrose, on one occasion, heard the mass of his flock shouting at 
the moon, to help her through the travail of an eclipse. Serm. de Defectione 
Lunce. 



Ambrose and Theodosius. 505 

this kind the confidence of the Christians and the dismay of the 
heathen were wonderfully increased. 

. Still the shrines of the old gods had at least their rhetorical 
avengers. Those busy iconoclasts, "the black-robed Rhetorical 
tribe (of monks) whose elaborately pale faces con- Aven ? ers - 
cealed an elephantine capacity for meat and drink," were made 
the targets of the wit of the eloquent Libanius. 30 The priests 
were not as zealous as the orators. When they saw the temples 
ruined, "they had no choice," says the same Libanius, "but 
either to be silent or to die." None of them adopted the latter 
alternative : so that the fall of heathenism, while it was attended 
with circumstances discreditable to Christianity, evoked no in- 
stances of heroism honorable to itself. 

The death-struggle was prolonged, going on from place f o 
place, with frequent edicts from the Emperors, 31 and with ri<jts 
now from the pagan side and now from the Christian, 

Struggle 

through the whole of the next century : a struggle in long 

.... rri1 , i-i continued. 

which charges of falsehood, wrong, and violence were 
used by either party with almost equal truth. 32 Under Arcadius 
and Honorius many temples escaped destruction by being appro- 
priated to State uses. Some, such as the Pantheon in Rome, 
were converted into churches. It was not till towards the mid- 
dle of the sixth century, under Justinian I., that paganism was 
driven from its stronghold among men of letters by the aboli- 
tion of the New Platonic School at Athens, while an edict of the 
same Emperor required all heathen to be baptized. 

3° He wrote a vigorous defence of the temples, addressed to Theodosius, 
in which the monks are severely lashed — unhappily with too much justice, so 
far as some of them were concerned. 

31 See Gieseler's Ch. H. \ 79. 

3 2 S. Augustine makes a heathen say, " Why should I turn Christian ? I 
have suffered wrong from a Christian and have not done wrong : a Christian 
has sworn falsely to me, but I to him never." So S. Chrysostom : " Not a 
heathen would be left, if we were really Christians : but now there are no 
converts," etc. 



BOOK V. 

♦ 

FROM THE RISE OF NESTORIANISM 

TO THE 

CLOSE OF THE TRULLAN COUNCIL. 

A.D. 428-69I. 



Book V. 

CHAPTER I. 

NESTORIUS AND S. CYRIL. 

On the death of Sisinnius, the fourth in succession from S. 
Chrysostom, the See of Constantinople was hotly contested : 
some rallied around Proems, a learned and saintly 

Nest onus 

Bishop, the titular Metropolitan of Cyzicum, 1 others Bishop, 

A.D. 428. 

around Philip, a distinguished Presbyter of the city. 
Through the influence of the Court both candidates were 
dropped ; and Nestorius, a Presbyter of Antioch, a second 
Chrysostom (it was thought) in eloquence and devotion, was 
duly elected. He was a monk, a man of severe life, a ready 
extemporaneous speaker, a controversialist of great renown, a 
disciple of the rationalizing school of Theodoras of Mopsuestia. 
That he was not deficient in the pride of orthodoxy was shown 
by his first speech to Theodosius after his consecration. " Give 
me, O Emperor," he exclaimed, "a world purged of heresy, 
and I will bestow on you the Kingdom of Heaven : assist me in 
putting down the sects, and I will help you to conquer the 
Persians." 

Five days after, he proved his zeal by conducting an assault 
upon a Church of the Arians : which happening to take fire 

1 Socrat. vii. 28. 



510 History of the Church. 

during the process of demolition, the crowd greeted their new 
„. _ . chief with the ominous title of Incendiary. With 

His Zeal •* 

against equal animosity he attacked the Novatians, Macedo- 

Heretics. . . 

nians, Pelagians, and at a later time the opponents of 
the Pelagians, under the name of Manichaeans. Acts of this 
kind were not unpopular. 2 In times of general weakness, vio- 
lence in word or deed passes current for strength. Nestorius, 
by his excesses, may have offended a few : but the multitude 
applauded his zeal ; the Court helped him on with intolerant 
edicts ; and even the heretics whom he harassed were not alien- 
ated, 3 for "many of them at that time came over to the Cath- 
olic Faith." 

The case was different when, within six months after his con- 
a new secration, he began to assail imagined errors within the 
Quarrel. Church: 4 when, as Socrates says, he converted an inno- 
cent phrase into " a bugbear," and instituted what was virtually 
a new test of heresy. 

Anastasius, an Antiochean Presbyter and an intimate friend 

of Nestorius, asserted, in a public discourse, that the Blessed 

Virgin ought not to be called Theotbkos. or Mother of 

Denial of A 6 . 

the Title God : such a title implying, as he urged, that Deity 

Theotokos. rJ , 6 ' , . . 

could be born of Humanity. The objection was a new 
one, and was vehemently resented. Every one was accustomed 
to the title : no one had ever thought of attaching to it a mean- 
ing so manifestly absurd. The preacher, therefore, was silenced 
by the clamor of the people. Dorotheus, a Bishop, another 
friend of Nestorius, came to his relief. " If any man,'" he 
cried, " call Mary Theotbkos, let him be anathema." Nestorius 

2 Socrates speaks of them as offensive to those " who did not cherish a 
senseless antipathy to the very name of heretic" — that is, to a minoi-ity. 
Socrat. vii. 29. 

sSocrat. vii. 31. 

■♦Socrat. vii. 29, 31—34 ; Evagrius, i. 1-7 ; for documents, etc., see Mansi, 
iv. v. and Hardouin. i. ; Marii. Mercator. Opp. Ed. Gamier ; Neale's Holy 
Eastern Church, vol. i; Gieseler, \ 88. 



Nestorius and S. Cyril. 511 

sat by and held his peace : but no one doubted that the new 
issue was opened at his suggestion. 

All this occurred on the twenty-second of November. Christ- 
mas was nigh at hand, the great Feast of the Nativity : the time 
intervening was felt to be the lull which precedes a storm, and 
the feeling spread rapidly to all parts of the Church. 
Nestorius, it afterwards appeared, was preparing for for Battle, 
battle. Cyril of Alexandria, the destined antagonist 
of Nestorius, was at work on his annual Paschal Epistle, now 
nearly due, for which no subject could be more proper than the 
question just started : he wrote, therefore, on the Doctrine of 
the Incarnation, setting forth the Faith as commonly held, and 
guarding it, so far as possible, against the danger of misappre- 
hensions. 

The Son of God, he urged, did not come to man merely, or 
take man upon him as a garment that may be put on and off : 
He verily became man ; He made man His own ; He 

. . . Cyril's 

showed Himself in the world as being one of us ; the Paschal /or 

the year 429. 

Flesh in which He was manifest was truly His Flesh ; 
so that whatever was done or suffered in that Flesh, the Son of 
God did, the Son of God suffered — without, however, any suf- 
fering or change in His Divine and ineffable Nature. Hence 
there could be no harm in saying, Mary bore Christ, or Mary 
bore God ; nay, there could be no harm in saying, even, God 
increased in wisdom and stature .- 5 for though God in His proper 
nature is incapable of birth or of increase, yet by His eternal 
purpose of assuming man's nature He made Himself in some 
sort capable of both. In short, Christ is one and the same 
Divine Being, whether we call Him J^esus or the Word, Em- 
manuel or God. To divide 6 Him in any way, to imagine a man 
Jesus merely joined to the Divine Word and distinguishable 

5 Cyril's reasoning on this point is more bold than clear. Ep. Pas- 
chal, xvii. 

6 This refers to the then received reading of I John, iv. 3 — " every spirit 
b Ivei, which divideth, Jesus Christ." See Socrat. vii. 32. 



5 1 2 History of the Church. 

from Him, were to attribute to that man a chief share in the 
work of grace which the Son of God wrought ; 7 it were to make 
that man the Offering, that man the Priest ; it were to make that 
man the worthy object of Divine adoration ; it were to substi- 
tute, in short, a human for a Divine Atonement. 

So, in substance, Cyril wrote, with great courage in facing 

the real difficulties of the question, with remarkable forethought 

Sagacity of of issues impending from opposite directions, and with 

the least possible allusion to the troubles which were 

brewing in Constantinople. 

On the other hand, Nestorius had armed himself with three 
Three discourses which were delivered respectively on Christ- 

Sermons of 

Nestorius. mas, New Year's Day, and the Feast of the Epiphany. 

To use the term Theotokos, he urged, was to imitate the 
heathen, who had mothers for their gods ; it was to contradict 
His S. Paul, who testified of Christ that He was "without 

father, without mother, without descent" ; it was to 
lose sight of the distinction, "That which is born of the flesh 
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit " : to avoid 
such consequences, we should believe the Son of Mary to be a 
temple wherein God dwelt, a vesti?ie?it wherewith He was clothed ; 
in short, not God, but Theodbchos, Theophbrus, one inhabited by 
God, yet entitled to adoration, by reason of the veiled Deity 
who dwelt within. 8 

On this last point, the propriety of worshipping Christ as 
One, on account of the intimate connection of the two natures, the 
His difference between Nestorius and S. Cyril might seem 

vasions. a i most: to have vanished in a mist of words. There 
remained, however, the fierce hostility to the term Theotokos as 
a title of the Virgin, and the studied application to Christ of 
such words as Theophbros — words which expressed only a Divine 
indwelling. All this looked suspicious, to say the least. More- 

7 The logical connection between the Nestorian and Pelagian heresies was 
seen by S. Cyril, and by most theologians, at a glance. 

8 The chief sentences of Nestorius are given in Gieseler's notes, \ 88. 



Nestorius and S. Cyril. 513 

over, Nestorius was not content to act on the defensive : he 
anathematized his opponents, he called them Apollinarians. 
Hence a great stir in Constantinople. First a certain monk 
refused to commune with the Bishop : he was scourged and 
driven into exile. Then a layman named Eusebius, General 
afterwards Bishop of Dorylseum, showed in a brief Excltement - 
tract that the new doctrine was but a revival of the heresy of 
Paul of Samosata. Marius Mercator, a Latin residing in the 
city, and a well-known opponent of the Pelagian heresy, took 
and maintained a similar ground. Some of the Clergy followed 
their example : though with the Court and Patriarch against 
them, they could utter their sentiments only at great risks. It 
was not so easy to silence the Monks : and the violent acts of 
Nestorius, which under different circumstances might have pro- 
voked little comment, now appeared in their true shape as acts 
of tyranny. 

At the Feast of the Incarnation, the twenty-fifth of March, 
Proems preached in the great Church, in presence of Nestorius: 
his subject, of course, was the Virgin Theotokos, that sermon 
bush which burned with fire but was not consumed, °f Proclus - 
that Mother and Maid who embraced Him whom the Heaven 
of heavens cannot contain; It was a sermon rich in Oriental 
imagery, richer still in theologic lore. Nestorius answered it 
extemporaneously, and followed up his strictures after- Answers 0/ 
wards with several more studied replies. No "new point Nestorius - 
was made, beyond a vehement assertion that by " the Apostle 
and High Priest of our Profession" we are to understand the 
man Jesus, not the everlasting Word. There was much bitter- 
ness, in these discourses, against the " generation of vipers" 
who refused to hear them : much of a fierce determination to 
maintain at all hazards the unpopular issue. They were widely 
and industriously circulated. Wherever they went 

. About 

they carried strife with them. At last, coming into the end 
the hands of the Egyptian monks, they furnished S. 
Cyril a reason, or as some say a pretext, for taking an active 
part in the growing quarrel. 
22* 



514 History of the Church. 

This remarkable man, who holds a place hardly second to 
Cyril's ear- that of S. Athanasius in the History of Dogma, rests 
under no little obloquy, from certain events connected 
with the beginning 9 of his career. 

He was the nephew of Theophilus. He resembled that vio- 
lent prelate in natural heat of temper. Entering the Ministry, 
Trying moreover, under his auspices, he fell heir to his preju- 
Position. (}j ces an d t- hj s general policy. A monastic training 
of six years under the severe Hilarion was not likely to improve 
him in these respects. To crown all, his election to the Epis- 
copate was carried by the people in the face of a decided oppo- 
sition from the military and civil authorities. It were hard to 
imagine a more trying position : an age, hopelessly corrupt ; 
a city, turbulent beyond all others ; a Church, powerful, but 
still entangled in the meshes of old feuds ; a magistracy feeble 
at the best for the maintenance of order, but now jealous of the 
Bishop, in league with his enemies, exercising authority in the 
spirit of a faction rather than of legitimate and acknowledged 
rule. Under such circumstances, Cyril, it is said, en- 

Usurpation . ' J ' ' 

of Civil larged the sway inherited from Theophilus, and seri- 

Power. 

ously encroached upon the temporal power. This may 
have been the effect of ambition on his part. But as the same 
thing happened at the same period with many other prelates, it 
seems more just to regard it as a necessity of the times. When 
the rod of the magistrate passes into priestly hands, it is gen- 
erally by a process of at least three steps. First, it is dropped 
by the hands that ought to hold it ; then, falling upon the 

9 Socrates, our only authority for this part of S. Cyril's life, evidently 
writes under a threefold bias. As a Constantinopolitan he had no liking for 
the Alexandrian ; as partial to the Novatians, he was unfriendly to a Bishop 
who suppressed that sect ; as a cold-blooded man of liberal views, he felt an 
antipathy for the zealous defender of the Faith. He shows his bias chiefly in 
two particulars. First, he mentions Cyril only in matters prejudicial to his 
fame ; secondly, he omits such circumstances as might explain or justify Cyril's 
conduct. Notwithstanding all this, I give the facts as Socrates relates them, 
merely adding here and there what he omits. Soc. E. H. vii. 7, 13-15. 



Nestoritis and S. Cyril. 515 

ground, it becomes a serpent ; finally, it is seized by whatever 
hand seems at the time most capable. Such, it is reasonable to 
suppose, was the nature of Cyril's usurpations. 

On his accession he was ambitious, as rulers new to power 
are apt to be, to pick up and enforce neglected laws. Edicts 
against the sects were precisely of that character. Most . 

prelates began by an attempt to enforce them, few were Excesses, 

A.D. 412. 

so unwise as to persist in the effort. Cyril, like the 
rest, made a vigorous start : 10 he suppressed the worship of the 
Novatians, seized their Church property, and confiscated the 
goods of their Bishop Theopemptus. 

He next comes before us in a bitter contest with the Jews 
of Alexandria and with Orestes the Prefect. The Jews, it ap- 
pears, infuriated against the Christians about some Quarrel 
quarrel connected with the mimes or dancers, had as- o-rTstls, 
sembled in the theatre on a certain Sabbath ; and A-D " 4I5 * 
Orestes had met them there, to put forth a new polity, or order, 
for the better regulation of the shows. A few Christians looked 
in to learn the nature of the order. One of them, Hierax, a 
schoolmaster, an ardent admirer of the Bishop, was detected, 
seized as a spy, dragged before the Prefect, and in compliance 
with the outcry of the Jews, was forthwith put to the torture. 
From a ruler thus indulgent to the humors of a mob, little could 
be hoped for in the way of justice : Cyril contented himself, 
therefore, with an appeal to the leading men of the hostile sect, 
warning them of the danger they incurred, if they went on 
provoking the anger of the Christians. The warning, 
or threat, was of no avail. The Jews, confident of of the 

Christians. 

impunity, added plot to plot, and at length resorted to Expulsion 

r, . , TT . of the Jews. 

an attempt of the most atrocious character. Having 

agreed that each should wear a ring of the white bark of a 

palm-branch for mutual recognition, they posted themselves in 

10 Bingham justly censures the invidious way in which Socrates tells this 
story : viz., that he mentions the rigid acts of Cyril without alluding to the 
law — an edict of Arcadius and Honorius — under which he acted. Ch. An- 
tiquit. V. iv. 11. 



5 1 6 History of the Church. 

the streets at the dead of night, raised a cry that Alexander's 
church was on fire, and slew the Christians one by one as they 
rushed out to the rescue. The carnage continued till daybreak, 
when the Christians rallied, with the Bishop at their head, drove 
back the murderers, took their synagogues by storm, sacked 
their quarters, and finally succeeded in expelling them in a 
body from the city. 

Where Orestes was during this melee, nowhere appears. We 
only learn that he was grieved at the loss to the city of so many 
Efforts wealthy Jews, and that he wrote to the Emperor, com- 
fo7 plaining of the Christians. Cyril also wrote, com- 

plaining of the Jews. In the meantime, the people were urgent 
for a reconciliation between the Prefect and the Bishop. So 
long as they were at variance, the majority of the citizens were 
virtually outlaws, and no man was secure of life or limb. Cyril 
was not slow to make suitable advances. He sent messengers 
of peace to the irritated governor ; and when these were re- 
jected, without even the scant courtesy of a hearing, the Bishop 
went to him in person, holding the Gospels out before him, 
as an olive-branch. The Prefect would have nothing to do 
with him, and the situation of the Christians became more 
desperate. 

Under these circumstances, the Nitrian Monks, men whose 
burning zeal was tempered with the least amount possible of 
Riot of the practical discretion, saw fit to interfere in behalf of 
Monks. their spiritual head. Five hundred of them came in 
from the desert, and meeting Orestes in his chariot, surrounded 
by his guards, expostulated with him in monkish fashion. It is 
likely that he was not more civil to them than he had been to 
the Bishop : at all events, they soon came to rough words, call- 
ing him pagan, idolater, and other hard names. Thoroughly 
frightened, the Prefect protested that he was a Christian. The 
Nitrians gave little heed to his protestations ; and one of them, 
named Ammonius, threw a stone at him and wounded him in 
the head. The guards take to flight, as seems to have been 
their custom in cases of emergency : but the citizens run up, 



Nestorius and S. Cyril, 517 

the monks in turn are routed, 11 and Ammonius is seized, scourged 
and tortured till death comes to his relief. Having made sure 
of him, Orestes, as usual, wrote a letter of complaint to the 
Court. Cyril sent in a statement for the opposite side. He 
even went so far, in anger at the Prefect or in pity of 

m Ammonias 

the monk, as to eulogize Ammonius in a public dis- railed a 

. . Martyr. 

course ; calling him Thaumasios, the Admirable, and 
entering his name upon the Roll of the Martyrs. For this he 
was much blamed by the more sober sort ; and the Bishop him- 
self, when he had thought better of it, was glad to let the matter 
be buried in oblivion. 

So far, in this eventful story, there seems to be a strange 
reversal of the ordinary relations of human society : the priest 
changes characters with the prefect, the monk with the strange 
soldier, the sheep with the shepherd : as the drama Reversals - 
draws to a close, a new phenomenon appears, in the shape of a 
fair young woman, who with marvellous dignity and propriety 
assumes and sustains the part commonly appropriated to wrinkled 
men. 

Hypatia, the famous daughter of Cleon the mathematician, 
a virgin, 12 a beauty, a scholar, a sage, a political oracle, an ac- 
complished lecturer, was the acknowledged head in 

r ' ° Hypatia. 

Alexandria of that school of philosophy which was the 
pride of paganism and the most formidable antagonist of Chris- 
tianity. She was the flower of the tree which Plotinus had 
planted and Porphyrius watered. As such she could not but 
be unpopular with the mass of Christians. She was extremely 

11 The terrific character which grandiloquent writers have given these 
monks seems to have been appreciated only by Orestes and the guards : citi- 
zens were not so much afraid of them. 

12 It is so much the custom to mention only the praises of Hypatia, that I 
almost shrink from putting in a word of qualification. It is due to truth, how- 
ever, to remark that the facts of her story, as related by Damascius (apud 
Suidam), reveal a woman who could unsex herself in a most revolting man- 
ner. Modern delicacy, therefore — e. g., the Biographie Universelle — is con- 
tent to eulogize her for repelling too ardent lovers : to say how she did it is 
tolerable only in Greek. 



5 1 8 History of the Church, 

intimate, moreover, with the Prefect Orestes. As such she was 
Suspicions vehemently suspected, perhaps unjustly, of fomenting 
agat r ' that petulant and sulky mood which had kept the city 
so long in a fever of excitement. In a morbid condition of the 
public mind, suspicion is more irritating than proven guilt. 
The feeling against Hypatia soon fretted into a frenzy. A 
number of fanatics, perhaps the Parabolani** those desperadoes 
of charity in the early Church, men who devoted themselves to 
familiarity with suffering in its ghastliest forms, felt a call to 
remove the fair obstacle to peace and unity. Headed by one 
Her Cruel Peter, a Reader, they met Hypatia in the street, tore 

her from her carriage, dragged her to a church hard 
by, stripped her, cut up her body with sharp shells, and finally 
burnt her mangled limbs in a place called Cinaron. The fiend- 
ish act brought no little reproach upon the Church and upon 
the Bishop. Even the Court was moved by it to adopt some 
measures for the public security : as the rankness of the Para- 
bolani manifestly required weeding, their order was reduced by 
a special edict to the number of five hundred. 

There is no proof whatever that the Bishop was responsible, 14 
by word or deed, for the fate of Hypatia : still the catastrophe 

was a lesson that a wise man, in his position, would 

Fourteen 

Years o/ lay to heart. How Cyril took it we have no means of 

Quiet. J J 

knowing. We find, however, that the next ten years 
of his life were comparatively quiet. It is also on record, that 
during this time he abandoned one strong prejudice inherited 
from his uncle, and allowed the name of S. Chrysostom to be 

J 3 The name is synonymous with Parabolarii — desperadoes — a name of 
reproach given to the Christians on account of their eagerness for martyrdom. 
Bingham's Antiquities, III. ix. i. The Parabolani probably date from the 
great plague, a.d. 263, in that enthusiastic care for the dead and dying which 
is described by Dionysius, ap. Euseb. vii. 22. Like all societies which orig- 
inate in a particular necessity, they degenerated when the necessity had passed 
away, and became a dangerous, though still useful, faction. See Tillemont, 
S. Cyrille, art. iv. 

14 Damascius, however, charges him with jealousy of Hypatia's popu- 
larity as a lecturer. Suid?e Lexicon. 



Nestorius and S. Cyril. 5 1 9 

inserted in the diptychs. This was done, to be sure, on the 
urgent remonstrances of the other Bishops : but in cases of this 
kind, involving the surrender of a cherished feeling, it shows 
greater humility to yield to one's peers than to act upon the 
dictates of private reason. 

Such, then, was the man who came forward, or was put for- 
ward, rather, by his eminent position in the Hierarchy, as the 
champion of the doctrine of the Incarnation. He character 
was a man of strong will, precipitate, zealous, not un- °* ' yriL 
like Nestorius in the more obvious traits of his character. In 
one point, however, there seems to have been a difference of the 
first importance. Cyril, though impetuous by nature, was not 
incapable of second and better thoughts. He could learn from 
experience, he was patient of rebuke. S. Isidore of $. Isidore, 
Pelusium, his austere monitor, rebuked his "pride" hisMonitor - 
in the matter of S. Chrysostom, with a plainness of speech 
which would have set most men frantic. Afterwards, again, in 
the Nestorian quarrel, he smote him sharply on the one cheek 
for his excess of zeal, and still more sharply on the other for his 
moderation. 13 The grace to take such reproofs and profit by 
them, is often that which makes the difference between the 
heretic and the saint, between Cyril and Nestorius. As a theo- 
logian, Cyril won a high place in general esteem. More than 
any other man of his day, he seized instinctively, and inflexibly 
maintained, that narrow middle way which is the path of safety. 
How far he merited the name of Saint, which the Church East 
and West has accorded to him, we at the present day have slen- 
der means of judging ; for we know nothing of the tenor of 
his daily life : history reveals him to us only as he appeared 
amid scenes of strife — scenes in which, so far as appearances 
go, the best men often seem to differ little from the worst. 

The Nestorian controversy, it has been mentioned, had en- 
kindled the zeal of the monks in Egypt : to them the first Letter 

*s It is unfair, in modern writers, to cite these rebukes as evidence against 
S. Cyril. Holy men are thrifty of their censures : they bestow them, not where 
they are most deserved, but where they are most likely to be heeded. 



520 History of the Church, 

of Cyril was addressed. An answer to it came from a friend of 
Cyrii and Nestorius in Constantinople. Efforts being made, the 
Af*ii. lus% meanwhile, to prejudice the Emperor against Cyril, 
a.d. 429. anc ^ numerous inquiries coming to the latter from 
Celestine of Rome and other prominent Bishops, with not a 
few complaints of his inertness, he at length addressed a sharp 
letter to Nestorius himself, and received a brief and cool and 
contemptuous reply. 

To Celestine Nestorius wrote somewhat more at length, put- 
ting the best face upon his new opinions. 16 The letter came 
under the eye of the famous Leo, then Archdeacon, 

Nestorius 

and afterwards known as Leo the Great, and by his advice 

was handed over to Cassian, to be translated into Latin 
and refuted. The result was an able tract, which appeared not 
long after, on the Doctrine of the Incarnation. 

A second letter from Cyril to Nestorius elicited a reply, in 
which the Union of the two Natures in One Person might seem to 
Letursto have been almost admitted : there was no retractation, 
Church"" however, and terms were shuffled in a way which left 
a.d. 430. r oom to doubt the sincerity of the author's meaning. 
Nestorius also wrote once more to Rome. As usual in such ques- 
tions, innumerable epistles were passing to and fro, in every di- 
rection. Finally, Cyril, having held the meanwhile a Council at 
Alexandria, sent a special messenger to Celestine, with a decla- 
ration of faith on the part of the Council, and a careful state- 
ment of the heads of heresy supposed to be held by Nestorius. 

A Council met at Rome, with these documents before it, 
and with elaborate memorials from other quarters. Nestorius 

16 For the order of events and the dates — which in this controversy are 
of great importance — I refer the reader to Neale's Holy Eastern Church, Book 
I. sect. i. Milman, in his anxiety to convict Cyril of prejudicing the mind 
of Celestine against Nestorius, is forced to admit that Nestorius wrote first, 
but thinks Cyril to have been virtually beforehand with him, from his having 
written in Latin : he forgets that the Letter of Nestorius was condemned as 
soon as received ; that it was given to Cassian to be refuted as well as trans- 
lated. Lai. Christianity, vol. i. 



Nestorms and S. Cyril, 5 2 1 

was condemned. To Cyril it was entrusted to carry out the 
sentence, and after due warning, with sufficient time council 
allowed for retractation, to take the necessary steps for *auj?™?, 
making it final. That nothing might be done imma- A,D - 43 °- 
turely, letters were sent at the same time to Nestorius, John of 
Antioch, Juvenal of Jerusalem, and other leading Bishops. 

John of Antioch was a personal friend of Nestorius ; and he 
acted the part of a friend, by urging him 17 affection- j ? m f 
ately to bend to the storm, and to spare the Church Anttoch ' 
the scandal of a needless schism. I have " always thought," 
he said, "that your meaning accorded with that of the Fathers 
and Church Doctors. If so, why scruple at a word ? 
Why expose yourself to the charge of a childish con- Letter to 
tentiousness, by battling against a term which can be 
used in a good sense, and which has been so used, or at least has 
been allowed, by all sound teachers ? It is no shame to yield in 
a matter of this kind. Many have so yielded for the peace of 
the Church. You and I remember how it was with our blessed 
master Theodorus (of Mopsuestia) : how he broached first to 
you, who had his confidence at that time, and afterwards to 
others, a disquieting opinion ; how he repented of it when he 
saw that it engendered strife; how openly he recanted for the 
Church's sake ; how, in consequence of this, he stood in higher 
credit than before." So, in substance, John wrote: a letter 
creditable to the good sense and kind feeling of the writer. 
The answer of Nestorius showed a heart full of the Answer of 
worst heresy : the pride of a morbid orthodoxy, the Nestornts - 
bigotry of self-confidence which delighted to be attacked, the 
determination at all hazards to brand his brethren with an ab- 
surdity — that the " Deity originated from the Virgin" — which 
no sane man could hold, and which everyone disavowed. "Of 
all men," says he, "I thought myself the last to be charged 
with any departure from right belief: known, as I am, to be the 
foe of heresy, and to take pleasure in the thousands of assaults 

"7 Hardouin. i. pp. 1327-1334. 



522 History of the Church. 

to which ray zeal for sound doctrine has continually exposed 
me." He protested, however, that he had no objection to the 
word Theofokos, rightly understood. In fact, he seemed ready 
to sacrifice everything, except his pride : but he declared him- 
self confident that, if a General Council were granted him, the 
whole matter could be settled to universal satisfaction. He 
relied, it is probable, on the influence of the Court. 

Cyril executed his task with due deliberation. More than 

two months elapsed before he prepared, with the help of a 

Synod at Alexandria, the test of orthodoxy which 

Twelve Nestorius was to sign. It was in the shape of twelve 

Anathemas. . , -.a i • > r 1 

November, Anathemas, 1 " denying in as many forms the existence 
of two Persons or Hypostases in Christ, and affirming 
the Union of the two Natures to be real in such a sense, that 
the Flesh assumed by the Word is truly His Flesh, not that of 
another person joined on to Him. This is known as the doc- 
trine of the Hypostatic Union. 

Nestorius responded by twelve counter Anathemas, aimed 
partly at a supposed confusion of the two Natures, as when Em- 
manuel is called God the Word, or when Mary is called 

Twelve 

Counter Theotokos : partly at a supposed physical change of the 

Anathemas. . . 

Divine Substance into Fleshy as when it is said " The 
Word was made Flesh" ; partly, against direct adoration of 
Christ as God, Nestorius allowing only a relative worship to 
"the servant form," on account of "its connection with the 
Nature of the Only-Begotten." 

18 The word anathema, like the word da?nn, has been so much taken in 
vain, that the English reader is apt to attribute to it a harsher meaning than 
properly belongs to it. It means properly a thing laid up, or reserved, for the 
righteous judgment of God. The Church, properly speaking, judges no man: 
she anathematizes, i. e., leaves certain things or certain men to God's judg- 
ment. 

*9 The transubstantiation of the Divine Substance into Flesh, or of the 
Flesh into the Divine Substance, was of course denied by the Catholics, who 
referred to the analogy of the Eucharist as an illustration of the truth they 
maintained : as in that sacrament the bread becomes the Body, without chang- 
ing its substance or nature, so, etc. See Pearson, On the Creed, Art. iii. 



Council of Ephesus. 523 



CHAPTER II. 

COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. — SYRIAN CHRISTIANITY. 

With the consent of all parties, the Emperor called a Gen- 
eral Council, to meet at Ephesus on the ensuing c ™u C ed 
Pentecost. 

The Council assembled. Nestorius was first on the ground 
with a numerous body of friends. Cyril came not long after 
with a train of about fifty Egyptian Bishops. Juve- 
nal of Terusalem arrived a few days later than the June, 

A.D. 431. 

time appointed. John of Antioch was latest of all, 

but as he sent an excuse for his tardiness, the Council waited 

for him fifteen days. 

The interval was spent in conferences, discussions, negotia- 
tions, intrigues. The season was hot and dry ; and one or two 
Bishops died from fevers engendered by the heat. The Debates in 
debates were not more temperate than the weather. theIntertm - 
Cyril, it is said, skirmished with the enemy, harassing him by 
powerful reasoning and vigorous abuse. Memnon of Ephesus 
was even more active on the same side. On the other hand, 
Nestorius exasperated the strong feeling against himself, by 
frivolous and irreverent off-hand speeches : he would not wor- 
ship, he declared, a God two months old. 

Under such circumstances nothing was to be gained by delay, 
nothing by discussion. The Bishops had already waited fifteen 
days, some of them longer, but John of Antioch still 

Council 

failed to make his appearance. Many suspected that opened.- 

Pfotcsts 

he intended to wear out the Council by delay. Cyril 

and the majority were in favor of proceeding to business at once. 



524 History of the Church. 

Nestorius and his friends protested. 1 So did Candidianus, the 
Imperial Commissioner. Sixty-eight of the prelates were in- 
duced to sign the protest. In spite of all this, the majority 
persisted, and the Council was formally opened with an attend- 
ance of one hundred and fifty-eight Bishops. 

Nestorius was thrice summoned, and thrice refused to appear. 
The Creed of Nicaea was read : then letters of Cyril, Nestorius, 
Nestorius Celestine, followed by remarks and acclamations of 

emned. a g reemen j- or dissent. Next came testimony to the 
effect that Nestorius had not retracted his error, but, by his 
profane speech about a God of two months old, had rather 
confirmed it. Extracts from the Fathers were read, and ex- 
tracts from the writings of Nestorius. Finally, sentence of 
deposition and excommunication was pronounced, and signed 
by the Bishops present. Other signatures were afterwards added, 
making the number in all about two hundred. 

Such was the action of the first day's session of the Council. 
Five days later, John of Antioch arrived and opened a separate 
Rival Synod of the friends of Nestorius. A wretched time 
councils. f Howed : Council against Council, sentence against 
sentence, protest against protest. John and his party, on the 
one side, Cyril and Memnon on the other, were mutually de- 
posed. The majority, however, were confirmed in the course 
they had taken by the arrival of Legates from Rome, who, hav- 
ing heard the Acts of the first session read, assented to them 
and subscribed the deposition of Nestorius. 

The Court interfered : at first by a commissioner who, after 
a vain endeavor to bring the parties to terms, read a letter from 
The Court the Emperor approving the deposition of Nestorius, 
interferes. Qy Y [\ f an d Memnon ; afterwards, these three being the 
meanwhile arrested, by summoning a deputation of eight from 
each Council, to meet the Emperor at Chalcedon. 

The result took every one by surprise. Cyril hitherto had 

1 The haste of Cyril has been much censured : I doubt, however, whether 
any deliberative body could be induced to wait more than fifteen days, in hot 
weather, on the convenience of a dilatory and perhaps hostile member. 



Council of Ephesus. 525 

been under the ban of the Court. Nestorius, on the contrary, 
had been high in favor. When the final decision came, all this 
was reversed : whether it was that the facts of the case Thi De p _ 
proved irresistible, or, as some alleged, that Alexan- Nestorius 
drian gold proved superior to the gold of Constant!- con fi rm " d - 
nople, Theodosins confirmed the decree of the first session of 
the Council ; Nestorius was left to his fate ; Maximian was 
elected Bishop in his stead ; and Cyril returned to his see in 
triumph. 

Much soreness remained among the Bishops of the defeated 
party. But in the course of the next year, John of Antioch and 
Cyril were reconciled : the latter declaring the Divine cyriiand 
Word to be Impassible — a point on which his orthodoxy reconciled, 
had been called in question ; and the former signing a A D> 432 * 
Confession that " Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only Son of God : 
perfect God, and perfect Man of a reasonable soul and of flesh 
subsisting : according to His Divinity, begotten of the Father 
before the world ; according to His Humanity, born in these 
last days, for our Salvation, of the Virgin Mary : consubstantial 
with the Father, according to His Godhead, and consubstantial 
with us, according to His Manhood : and in that the two Natures 
have been united, we acknowledge one Lord, one Christ, one 
Son. Wherefore we confess that the Blessed Virgin is the 
Mother of God : because the Word of God was incarnate and 
was made man." 

Among those who had sided with Nestorius from a mis- 
apprehension of the views of the opposite side, Theodoret of 
Cyrus, who holds a high place among the Church Extreme 
Historians, was one of the most learned and saintly ^* r ''«- 
in life : he was also one of the last to forsake his error. There 
were others who really inclined to the heresy imputed to Cyril. 
These were scandalized by his moderation in his dealings with 
John of Antioch, and by his assertion of the two perfect Na- 
tures in Christ. S. Isidore of Pelusium was among those who 
blamed him for yielding too much. 

The fate of Nestorius was extremely sad. Banished first to 



526 History of the Church. 

a monastery, thence to Petra, and thence to the great Oasis ; 
End 0/ driven from this last shelter by the inroads of barbar- 
us ' ous tribes ; destitute, afflicted and burdened with age, 
he wrote a piteous letter to the Court : but receiving no answer 
beyond a sentence of remoter exile, he finally perished, it is 
said, of a painful and loathsome disease. The tongue which 
had offended, or, as some say, his whole body, was eaten up of 
worms. 

Very different from all this was the fortune that attended his 
name and doctrine. As if to verify his proud promise of help- 
ing to conquer the Persians, his system, when banished 

Spread of & I > J > 

Ncstorian from the Empire, was hospitably received into the 
rival Kingdom, and established itself there with splen- 
did success as the dominant form of religion. 2 The famous 
school of Edessa was the fountain-head of the error. There 
Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodorus of Tarsus were held in 
honor. There the flower of the Persian youth were instructed 
in the elements of Christian learning. Thence, through the 
violent zeal of the Catholic Bishops of the place, a host of 
ardent alumni, driven from the school, poured into the Eastern 
world and diffused everywhere their rationalistic tenets. Ibas, 
Persia, how one of their number, wrote a celebrated letter to 
gamed. Maris the Persian, in which the impression was con- 
veyed that Nestorius had been condemned without a hearing, 
and that Cyril and his friends were Apollinarians. The cal- 
umny spread, and effectually poisoned the mind of the East. 
About the same time, Barsumas of Nisibis, another disciple of 
the Edessan school, persuaded the Persian king that the Catho- 
lics in his dominions were but Roman spies, and that he could 
never be sure of the loyalty of his subjects, so long as they were 
one in faith with the Greeks. By arts of this kind, Nestorian- 
ism gained a firm hold in Persia. 

From Persia it spread, through all the intricate channels of 
Oriental commerce, into Arabia towards the south, back into 

2 For the rest of this chapter see Asseman. Bibliothec. Oriental, torn, 
iii. Gibbon (chap, xlvii.) gives a good summary of Nestorian history. 



Syrian Christianity. 527 

Mesopotamia and Syria whence it came, northward and east- 
ward through many intervening tribes into Tartary, Syrian 
China, India : so that there was a time when a sepa- 
rate Christendom flourished, Syrian, Chaldaean, Oriental, tinged 
more or less with Nestorian views, which rivalled in numbers 3 
and extent of territory the Greek and Latin Churches taken 
together. 

But this great body held the name Nestorian only as a term 
of reproach. The parent, they contended, ought not to take 
the name of the child : Nestorius might be called a How far 
Syrian, but not the Syrians Nestorians. 4 They ab- Nestorian - 
horred, however, the memory of "the Egyptian"; they re- 
jected the Council of Ephesus. On the other hand, most of 
them honored the names of Nestorius, Theodorus, and Diodo- 
rus. For the rest, their religion may be described as a cautious 
and captious 5 Catholicism. They professed to hold "without 
variation what they had received from Apostolic times." In 
doctrine, they were averse to new definitions ; in morals, they 
avoided enthusiasm. Developments, whether good Peculiar 
or bad, found little favor among them. Their Clergy, uws ' 

except the highest order, were allowed to marry as often as they 
pleased. The same liberty was accorded to monks and nuns. 
Scripture they preferred in the grammatical sense : the versions 
in use among them have proved, in most of the disputed texts, 6 
more correct than those which orthodox writers have cited 
against them. On the whole, while their separation from the 
rest of Christendom had the effect of dwarfing their theology, 

3Thomassin. Vet. et Nov. Eccles. Disciplin. pars i. liber i. cap. xxiv. vii. 

4 « Why," they asked, " should they be called after a Greek whom they 
had never seen, and who knew not a word of their language ?" See Asse- 
man. Bib. Orient, torn. iii. pars ii. vii. 5. 

5 Thus their principal objection to the Theotokos was, that Theos is the 
name of the Trinity rather than of any one Person of the Trinity. They were 
unwilling to use terms in the same sense with other Catholics. Asseman. 
torn, iii vii. 6. 

6 Asseman. torn. iii. pars ii. vii. 7. 



528 History of the Church. 

so that they failed to express, and perhaps to grasp, the great 
Truth of the Incarnation, yet on the other Hand, they avoided 
many of the superstitions, abuses, and corruptions which the 
livelier fancy of the Greeks and the sensuous spirit of the 
Latins readily admitted. 

We have thus the remarkable spectacle of a mighty Church, 
a full third of the Household of Faith, which became an arrested 
Anarrested growth, as it were — a stereotype, a witness holden un- 
Growth. ^ er b on( } s — f j-hg religion of the first four centuries. 
Like S. Thomas, its great Apostle, 7 Syrian Christianity believed 
up to a certain point, but then halted, not so much in unbelief 
as in a rational perplexity. The Nestorian quarrel was the occa- 
sion, not the cause of this. The cause perhaps lies in the simple 
fact that what may be called the vernacular Christianity of the 
East, growing up in the shade of that brilliant Greek exotic 
which appears almost alone in early history, had taken root far 
and wide, with a language, tradition, and peculiar temper of its 
own ; so that a separation long going on, and at some time 
inevitable, was precipitated by the misunderstandings of the 
Nestorian conflict. 

Something of the same sort had appeared before in the his- 
tory of Judaic Christianity. We shall see a similar spectacle 
Principle again in the great Monophysite schisms, and later still, 
involved. - n ^ e gradual estrangement of the Greeks and Latins. 
In the progress of the Church, whether towards good or evil, 
there is not always that charity for the slow and feeble of the 
company, which induced Jacob 8 to "lead on softly," instead 
of attempting to keep pace with the swifter march of his 
brother. The tendency to "overdrive," on the one hand, and 
to lag unduly on the other, has proved in all ages a chief pro- 
vocative of schism. 

7 A very respectable tradition makes S. Thomas the Apostle of the Syri- 
ans, Chaldseans, Parthians, Persians, Medes, and East Indians. For this, and 
for an account of the Christians of S. Thomas in India, see Asseman. Bib, 
Orient, torn. iii. 

8 Gen. xxxiii. 13, 14. 



Eutyches. 529 



CHAPTER III. 

EUTYCHES AND THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON. 

The Council of Ephesus failed to satisfy either of the extreme 
parties in the question of the Incarnation : and even some who 
held a middle ground were not altogether content with 

. . , . . . . Dioscorus 

its decisions. Cyril tried in vain to crown his previous and 

i mi Theodoret. 

efforts by procuring the condemnation of Iheodorus 
of Mopsuestia. A fiercer war was waged between Theodoret of 
Cyrus and Dioscorus of Alexandria, the successor of S. Cyril : 
a leaning towards Nestorius, on the one side, and towards Apol- 
linaris, on the other, being the alleged ground of dispute. 

Eutyches, an aged and venerated Abbot of a monastery near 
Constantinople, was strongly suspected of the latter 

• Eutyches. 

error ; l and was formally accused of it by the same 
Eusebius of Dorylseum who had been so forward in exposing 
the pravity of Nestorius. 

For seventy years the old man had lived in his monastery as 
in a tomb ; never venturing out, except in one instance when he 
went to bear witness against the heresy of Nestorius. 

. Council 

At length, however, he is forced from his retreat. ate. p., 

° A.D. 448. 

Summoned before a Synod at Constantinople, he is 
questioned and cross-questioned : he resorts in vain to excuses, 
quibbles, evasions ; seems to admit, and seems equally to deny, 
the charges brought against him : but amid all his obscurities 
and contradictions, maintains with obstinate conviction, that 
there are not two Natures in Christ after the Incarnation, but one 
Nature incarnate. 

1 Evagrii, H. E. i. 9. 

23 



53 o History of the Church. 

What he meant by this is not very clear. He may have sup- 
posed, with Apollinaris, that the Divine Word assumed only tiuo 
of the three elements of our nature : or, with the 

Three 

forms of Docetae, that His Body was phantasmal ; or, with the 
Monophysites, that the two Natures were so wrought 
together, like the soul and body of man, as to make up one 
compound Nature. The extreme followers of Eutyches after- 
wards held the second of these errors. As to Eutyches him- 
self, the Council forced him to acknowledge that our Lord is 
of one substance with us, according to His flesh; but when 
called on to anathematize the opposite opinion, he stubbornly 
refused. 

The Synod condemned him : the old man protesting, how- 
ever, amid much confusion, that he held the Faith of Nicaea 
Eutyches ar >d Ephesus j that he subscribed to the doctrine of 
consumed, q^jj an< j Athanasius ; and that he was willing to 
abide by the judgment of Rome and Alexandria. 

Flavianus, then Patriarch of Constantinople, had endeav- 
ored at first to abate the ardor of his colleagues, but at last felt 
obliged to concur in their decision. The Emperor 
Trial Theodosius was not so easily convinced. To him the 

ordered. 

whole affair looked like a plot of the Nestorianizing 
party. So it seemed also to Dioscorus of Alexandria. As 
Eutyches had been a staunch friend of S. Cyril, it was natural 
enough to suspect the motives of those who had condemned 
him. A new Council therefore was called by the Emperor, to 
meet at Ephesus, and Flavianus and his colleagues were put on 
trial. 

Dioscorus, the leader of the Synod, had inherited the fiery 
zeal of his great predecessors, without their laborious and self- 
denying love of the Truth. 2 He had won the Episco- 

Character J ° L 

of Diosco- pate by an extraordinary show of sanctity and humility. 

But he soon laid himself open to charges of a grasping 

and tyrannical spirit. He ill-treated the Clergy. Under the 

2 Tillemont, torn, xv.; S. Leon, art. ix ; Neale'si/. E. Ch. Book II. sect. iv. 



The Latrocinmm. 531 

pretext of charity, he confiscated into the Church treasury the 
property of S. Cyril, thereby defrauding his heirs. What was 
still more scandalous, his palace was frequented by mimes or 
dancers ; and the courtesan Irene was notoriously kept as his 
concubine. Finally, he was possessed, to an extraordinary 
degree, with the Alexandrian jealousy of Constantinople. 

With this Dioscorus, Juvenal of Jerusalem and Thalassius 
of Caesarea shared the responsibility of the Council, His 

being named in the Emperor's letter as his co-assess- ° eagucs - 
ors. There were present also about one hundred and twenty- 
five Bishops. 

From the disorderly character of its proceedings, the assem- 
bly was branded in later times with the title Latrocinium, or 
Robber Council. We have its Acts only as subse- 

J Robber 

quently related at Chalcedon by prelates who, on Council, 

A.D. 449. 

their own showing, had been bullied into a shameful 
compliance, and whose interest it was to make Dioscorus the 
scapegoat of their own shortcomings. Such witnesses are apt 
to exaggerate the violence to which they have succumbed. It 
seems pretty certain, however, that little regard was paid to the 
usual forms of synodical action ; that a large body of soldiers 
and counts, and a still larger body of monks, were ready to do 
the bidding of Dioscorus ; that when opposition arose, the 
monks rushed in ; that some of the Bishops were bruised, some 
wounded, some put in chains, some forced to sign a blank 
paper ; that, with the exception of one Roman Legate who 
protested and fled, all finally gave way : that, in short, Eutyckes 
Eutyches was cleared, while Flavianus and Eusebius Flavianus 
were condemned, deposed, and thrown into prison. condemncd - 
Flavianus died not long after, of injuries received at the hands 
of Dioscorus. The Acts, as corrected by the latter, say noth- 
ing of all this violence. Unfortunately no other records re- 
mained : for the tablets kept by the notaries of the other Bish- 
ops had been seized, it was said, by order of Dioscorus, and 
had been all destroyed. Such is the substance of the testimony 
given at the Council of Chalcedon. 



S3 2 History of the Church. 

Dioscorus, in all this, was countenanced by the Court : and 
acting, as he thought, in the interest of a dominant party, secure 
Mistake of of the sympathy of the great body of the monks, 3 con- 
fident in the prestige of a See so often and so recently 
victorious, and fighting in a cause which seemed almost identical 
with that of S. Cyril, he may well have counted on the strength 
of party spirit to bear him out in his violence, and to pardon, 
perhaps to reward, the excesses of his zeal. 

The event soon showed how much he was mistaken.' Party 
spirit in the Church was strong, not blind. Furious and un- 
Zeai for seemly as were the passions of the age, the mightiest 
the Truth. p ass j on st in was i ove f or t ] ie Truth. In the height of 

the tempest of religious animosities, there was a guiding star, 
there was a certain goal. The Incarnation, as a reality and a 
fact, must be cleared of every theory, however plausible, that 
might serve in any way to obscure it. By losing sight of this, 
more than by his arbitrary acts, Dioscorus lost at once and for- 
ever, for himself and for his See, the advantages of his strong 
position. 

Leo, the Roman Bishop, was the first to move against him. 
Before the meeting at Ephesus, he had written to Flavianus that 
Leo famous Letter, which still remains a standard of Church 

«'»«** teaching on the subject of the Incarnation. Diosco- 
Counai. rus too k care faox the Letter should not be read in the 
Council. For this and other reasons, Leo urged the Emperor 
to take the necessary steps for bringing him to trial. 

Theodosius declined : for it was the fate of this feeble 

prince, more of a monk than of an Emperor, to 

Emperor foster the first growth of both those opposite, but 

dp c lines 

kindred, heresies, which were destined from that time 
forth to distract the East. 

Not long after, he departed this life. His feeble and peace- 
ful, but inglorious, reign, beginning with an infancy of seven 
years, and ending with what was hardly more than an infancy 

3 Dioscorus is charged with the crime of corrupting the manners of the 
monks : the corruption, however, had begun a good while before. 



Pulcheria. 533 

of fifty, had yet afforded some proof 4 to mankind "that piety 
alone suffices for the prosperity and safety of princes." character 
No wars of any consequence had disturbed the East : Reign, 
no rebellion had unsheathed the sword of justice. For A - D - 407-450. 
this he owed much to his sister Pulcheria, who, having devoted 
herself to the virgin life and induced her two sisters to Pulcheria. 
do likewise, superintended the education of her brother, and 
was afterwards the soul of all his counsels. She furnished him 
with able masters in "horsemanship and the use of Education 
arms, in literature and science." Another part of his Sw'S^ 
training, and perhaps the only part in which he prof- Younger. 
ited much, was carefully looked to by the princess herself: " she 
showed him how to gather up his robes, and how to take a seat ; 
to refrain from ill-timed laughter, to assume a mild or formi- 
dable aspect as the occasion might require, to inquire with 
urbanity into the cases of those who came before him with 
petitions. But chiefly she strove to imbue his mind with piety 
and with the love of prayer ; to go to Church regularly ; to con- 
tribute liberally to the erection and embellishment of sacred 
buildings ; to reverence the priests and other good men, and 
especially those who, in accordance with the laws of Christian- 
ity, had devoted themselves to philosophic asceticism." 

Under this feminine, but firm, regime, the palace was more 
than half a monastery, and monkery luxuriated in a dreamland 
of unbridled imagination. It was at this period that Monachism 
Symeon, 5 the famous pillar-saint, lived on the top of a luxuriant - 
post two cubits in circumference, " endeavoring to realize in the 
body the existence of the heavenly hosts." Nor was his a soli- 
tary example. His whim became a rule of life to hosts of im- 
itators. Indeed, such was the religious exaltation of the age, 
that Symeon, after all, was a sample of the more sober rather 
than of the wilder moods of ascetic enthusiasm. 

4 Sozom. ix. 1-3; Evagr. i. 12-22; Socrat. vii. 42. 

5 The historians, especially Evagrius, dwell with rapture upon these ex- 
travagances. Evag. i. 13, 14, 21. 



53 4 History of the Church. 

A pilgrimage of the Empress Eudocia to Jerusalem, in 
„ , . imitation of S. Helena, enabled her to witness, and 

Eudocia. 

caused contemporary writers admiringly to record, a 
few of these wilder excesses of the monastic spirit. 

There were some "philosophers" who, by continuous fasts 
and vigils, aimed at tf*e condition of "tombless corpses" : to 

be bloodless nerveless, passionless, silent as the grave, 

Strange A . 

forms of was the he' (ht of their perfection. Others lived in 

Asceticism. 

holes or c&~ es or lairs of wild beasts, just large enough 
to admit the body m a crouching posture. Others, of either 
sex, roved almos' naked in herds, through wilds and deserts, 
shunning the face of civilized men, browsing like beasts, and 
eluding all pursuit by supernatural swiftness of foot. There 
were others, a chosen and "perfect" few, who by such exer- 
cises having attained the pinnacle of philosophic "apathy," 
threw themselves down, as it were, into the common crowd, 
mixed with the world, courted temptation, frequented the pub- 
lic baths without regard to the distinction of sex, " became men 
with men and women with women," fasted, sometimes by total 
abstinence from food, sometimes by indulging "against their 
will" in luxurious repasts: in short, claimed to be "dead 
men" haunting the abodes of the living, and were popularly 
regarded with a corresponding reverence. 

Such were some of the spectacles with which Eudocia was 

edified in her munificent journey through the East : such had 

come to be considered the most perfect fruits of that 

Liberality 

of the monastic system upon which she and Pulcheria, and 

Empress. 

the Court in general, were disposed to lavish the treas- 
ures of the Empire. At a later period, the Empress herself be- 
came a mark for scandal, fell into disgrace with her pious hus- 
band, and found a refuge amid the scenes which she had learned 
to admire. 

The vast numbers who indulged in such extravagances, or at 
sensuous least lent countenance to them, might lead one to 
Enthusiasm. conc i uc [e t h at; the world at this time was running 
mad. In the East, however, it has never been the custom to 



The Council of Chalcedon. 5.35 

shut up the insane. The vagaries which with us are hidden out 
of sight and almost forgotten, are there permitted to go at 
large, objects of reverence rather than of horror or shuddering 
compassion. But with all allowance for considerations of this 
kind, it is still plain that, in the age of the younger Theodosius, 
sensuous enthusiasm was fearfully increasing : so that, while 
cultivated minds were absorbed in the nice distinctions of a 
high theology, the people were straying, almost without check, 
into the wilds of a fanciful but grovelling superstition. 

Relic-worship, especially, received a new impulse at this 
time. The discovery of the remains of saints, from Zachary 
the Prophet and Stephen the Protomartyr, down to R e u c . 

the forty who suffered in the army of Licinius, is orsup. 
a theme upon which historians 6 had learned to dwell with 
rapture. Pulcheria is for nothing more highly lauded than 
for the Divine instinct she possessed for discoveries of this 
kind. 

On the death of her brother, the reins of government fell 
naturally into the hands of Pulcheria. She yielded so far to 
the prejudice that existed against feminine rule, as to 

r J ° ' Marcian 

choose a nominal husband and partner of the throne, Emperor, 

it 11 A,D " 45°' 

in the person of Marcian, an aged and worthy senator. 
With these changes in the Palace, there came also a new policy 
with regard to Church affairs. The wishes of Pope Leo, disre- 
garded by Theodosius, were at length carried out ; and, that 
peace might be restored to the Church, it was determined to 
call a Synod as nearly universal as the power of the Emperor 
could make it. 

Nicsea was first selected as the place for the Council. But 
Attila, at this time, was threatening the Empire with his hordes 
of victorious Huns, and it was not convenient that the 

Council 0/ 

Court should at such a crisis be absent from the capi- chalcedon, 

A.D. 451. 

tal. The Bishops therefore were summoned to Chal- 
cedon. There they finally assembled, in the Church of S. Eu~ 

6 Sozom. ix. 2, 17 ; Evag. i. 16. 



536 History of the Church. 

phemia, by the sea-side, a most charming spot 7 commanding a 
matchless view of the Propontis, the Imperial city, and the ma- 
jestic amphitheatre of wooded hills that rose in stately beauty 
behind. 

Pains had been taken to have the Church at large numerously 
represented. 8 About six hundred and thirty Bishops obeyed the 
Number summons to attend. The bulk of these came, as usual, 
a o/ d the rder fr° m tne East : tne West wa s represented by the Le- 
Bishops. gates of Pope Leo, who also sent letters to Marcian 
the Emperor, to x\natolius who had succeeded Flavianus in the 
See of Constantinople, and especially to the Council itself. The 
majesty of the Empire also was imposingly set forth. Nineteen 
oncers of high officers, " most magnificent and most illustrious," 
the Empire. consu i s an( j ex-consuls, prefects and ex-prefects, mag- 
istrates and counts, civil and military, sat conspicuously on a 
platform before the Altar rails, as "judges most illustrious," the 
counsellors, assessors, and moderators generally of the proceed- 
ings of the Synod. On the left of these, two " most reverend" 
Bishops and one "most religious" Presbyter held the place of 
Leo, "the most holy and most reverend Archbishop of the 
mother city, Rome." The thrones of Constantinople, An- 
tioch, Csesarea, Ephesus, with the Bishops of Asia, Pontus, 
Thrace, came next in order. On the other side, Alexandria 
was first, then Jerusalem, with the Bishops of Egypt, Palestine, 
Illyria. The Presence of the Lord was fitly symbolized, as at 
Ephesus, by a Book of the Holy Gospels placed in the midst of 
the assembly. 

Order being thus established, Paschasinus, a Legate of " the 

7 Evagrius enlarges on the beauty of the scenery and on the delicious 
odor, surpassing all terrestrial perfumes, which exhaled from the body of S. 
Euphemia. To the prayers of this Saint much of the success of the Council 
was attributed. 

8 Copious accounts of this Council, including the Latrocinium, etc., are 
given in the Concilia. See also Evagrius, B. ii. ; also, for a useful summary, 
Hammond's Councils and Canons ; Tillemont, torn. xv. S. Leon; Neale's 
H. E. Ch. 



The Council of Chalce don. 537 

Apostolic See," stood up and said to the "most illustrious 
Judges and the most eminent assembly," "We hold pi rst 

in our hands instructions from that most blessed and usmess. 
apostolic man, the Pope of the city Rome, the head of all the 
Churches, that Dioscorus shall not be permitted to sit in the 
Council. These instructions we are bound to follow. There- 
fore, if it please your magnificence, let Dioscorus go out, or else 
we go." The Judges asked, "What charges in particular are 
brought against the most reverend Bishop Dioscorus?" "We 
allege," replied the Legate, " that he has dared to hold a Synod 
without the authority of the Apostolic See, a thing never done 
before, nor ever allowed." The Judges said, "You must set 
forth the particulars wherein he has offended." One of the Le- 
gates answered, "We cannot suffer such a wrong to ourselves or 
to you, as that a man who is on trial should sit here Dioscorus 
among us." The Judges then said to Dioscorus, "If on TriaL 
you sit as a judge, you cannot be at the same time a party to 
the cause." Thereupon, Dioscorus placing himself as ordered 
in the midst of the assembly, and the Legates sitting in their 
own seats, Eusebius, " the most religious Bishop of the city 
Dorylseum," came forward and said: "By the safety of the 
masters of the world, command my petition to be read, as the 
most pious Emperor has directed. I have been wronged by 
Dioscorus ; the Faith has been wronged ; Bishop Flavianus has 
been murdered. Along with me he has been unrighteously con- 
demned. Order my petition to be read." The most illustrious 
Judges and the most eminent assembly answered, "Let the peti- 
tion be read." Then, Eusebius being ordered to sit down in 
his place, Veronicianus, "the sacred Secretary of the Divine 
Consistory," took the petition from his hands and read it 

Such was the opening of the business at Chalcedon. It was 
a trial of Eutyches, Dioscorus and the Robber Council. Peti- 
tions were heard, Acts were read, testimony was re- Diosc<»-vs 
ceived, Dioscorus the meanwhile pleading his own cotuagues 
cause with great coolness and ability. The most he condemned - 
could prove was that he was not alone in fault. In this he 

23* 



538 History of the Church. 

succeeded so well that, when he was finally condemned, his 
principal colleagues in the proceedings at Ephesus shared his 
sentence. These, however, had already made their peace with 
Leo. They were equally prompt in submission to the Council, 
and were consequently restored. The guilt of Dioscorus was 
aggravated by contumacy, and by numerous acts of violence, 
tyranny, rapacity and scandalous behavior. 

With the condemnation of Eutyches and Dioscorus, the doc- 
trine of the Incarnation was more exactly defined ; and the four 
. words, truly, perfectly, indivisibly, without confusion, 
o/ the became from that time the sum of the testimony of the 

Faith. , J 

four great Councils, the safeguard against every wind 
of error, from whatever quarter it might blow. That Jesus 
Christ is true God, had been witnessed at Nicaea ; that He is 
perfect Man, had been defined at Constantinople ; that He is 
indivisibly One Person, had been settled at Ephesus : finally, the 
six hundred and thirty at Chalcedon declared that " He is one 
and the same Christ, the Son, the Lord, the Only-begotten, in 9 
two Natures, without confusion, change, division or separation." 
Most fully and accurately had all this been expressed in the 
famous Letter of Pope Leo. 10 Accordingly when that document 
Leo's was read, the Council received it with acclamations : 

Letter. "This is the Faith of the Fathers; this is the Faith 
of the Apostles. Anathema to him who believes it not. Peter 
has spoken by the mouth of Leo. Religiously and truly has 
Leo taught. So Cyril taught. Cyril and Leo have taught 
alike. Anathema to him who believes not with them." But 
some of the Illyrian and Palestine Bishops objected to certain 
expressions in the Letter. Thereupon parallel passages were 
cited from the writings of S. Cyril. Some of the Bishops being 
still unsatisfied, the Judges at length consented to a postpone- 
ment of the subject for five days, during which the disputed 
phrases might be examined more carefully, and compared with 

9 The word " in two Natures " was carried by the urgency of the Papal 
Legates, many of the Easterns preferring to say " of." Concil. Chalced. 
Act. v. I0 Carefully translated in Neale's H. E. Ch. 



The Council of Chalcedon. 539 

admitted standards. Anatolius, the successor of Flavianus, was 
appointed to conduct the investigation. After seven Accepted on 
days the committee reported; 11 the objectors were tts M Zto S k 
satisfied ; and it was unanimously declared that Leo's Authortt y- 
Tome, inasmuch as it accorded with the witness of the Three 
Hundred and Eighteen at Nicaea, of the Hundred and Fifty at 
Constantinople, and with the writings of S. Cyril approved at 
Ephesus, was to be received and subscribed as a true exposition 
of the Faith. 

A more difficult matter, involving bitter feelings and leading 
to stormy scenes, was the treatment of the Bishops who had 
fallen under the censure of the Council. 12 The col- 

The 

leagues of Dioscorus at Ephesus were let off lightly, condemned 

& * 1 Bishops. 

as has been already mentioned. As to Dioscorus him- 
self, his doom was irrevocable, and he was banished to Gangra 
in Paphlagonia, where he died some three years after. Thirteen 
Egyptians, his suffragans, threw themselves upon the mercy of 
their brethren. They held the Faith, they were willing to sub- 
scribe, they were ready to anathematize all heretics, but how 
could they do so until a new head should be chosen over them ? 
Their excuses were met with a storm of reprobation. 

Hard Case 

"Why have they not anathematized the dogma of of the 

Egyptians. 

Eutyches ? They are trying to deceive us and get off. 
Let them do as the rest have done. Let them subscribe the 
Tome of Leo. Let them anathematize Dioscorus." The Bish- 
ops threw themselves on the ground. "Have mercy on us. 
Pity our gray hairs. We are too few to act for the whole of 
Egypt. If we venture so to do, they will banish us, they will 
murder us, all Egypt will rise against us, we shall waste our days 
in exile. Be compassionate, be merciful. If you wish us to be 
killed, slay us yourselves. Let us die here at your feet." One 
of the Roman Legates answered by a cruel taunt : "Are men 
of your years so ignorant of the true Faith, that you must wait 
forsooth for the opinions of other people ? " Eusebius of Dory- 
laeum said flatly, "They are liars." Another prelate cried, 

11 Concil. Chalced. Act. iv. 12 Concil. Chalced. Act. iv. 



540 History of the Church. 

"If they do not know their own mind, how can they choose a 
Their Bishop?" The Church resounded with similar ex- 
Rcguest clamations. The Judges, however, decided that their 

allowed. J ° 

request was reasonable, and a truce was accorded them 
until a new Patriarch should be appointed. 

Theodoret of Cyrus was still under a cloud, from the part 
he had taken in the Nestorian controversy. When he entered 
Case o/ the Council, therefore, at its first session, he was 
tcdoret. g reete( j w } t h a Babel of angry cries. "Away with the 
Nestorian ! " shouted the Egyptians : " Away with Theodoret, 
who anthematized S. Cyril 1 " The Orientals retorted, "Away 
with Dioscorus, away with the murderer of Flavianus ! " The 
Judges allowed him to remain as one on trial. In the eighth 
session his case was called up by a cry from the whole assembly : 
"Let Theodoret now anathematize Nestorius ! " Theodoret 
He attempts passed over to the middle of the Church and said : 
9 explain. (( j k ave presented a petition to the most divine and 
religious Emperor, and I have handed in a memorial to the 
most reverend Bishops who here hold the place of the most rev- 
erend Archbishop Leo : now, therefore, if it please you, let my 
papers be read, that ye may know what is my belief." The 
a Hearing- Bishops shouted, " We want nothing read : anathema- 
deniedhim. tize Nestorius , n Theodoret replied, "By the grace 

of God I was brought up in the right faith, and in the right 
faith was I instructed, and the right faith have I preached : and 
not only Nestorius and Eutyches, but every other heretic I 
utterly abhor." The Bishops interrupted him by exclaiming.: 
"Speak out clearly and at once; anathematize Nestorius!" 
Theodoret persisted in the attempt to define his position, but 
before he had uttered three sentences he was again cut short : 
"Speak plainly and unequivocally; anathematize Nestorius!" 
But he was determined to be heard : " If I am not to explain 
myself, I cannot speak at all. I believe ..." The rest of his 
speech was drowned in a general outcry: "He is a 

He submits. . . -r»ii 

heretic. He is a Nestorian. Put the heretic out ! 
He at length had to yield. He anathematized Nestorius ; the 






The Monophy } sites. 541 

Judges pronounced him clear ; and the Synod in due form 
received him into favor. 

The Council concluded its labors by enacting twenty-eight 
canons : the last of which reaffirmed the Eastern rule of pre- 
cedence, by giving the second place of honor to Con- canon 
stantinople as new Rome. This was earnestly opposed 
by the Roman Legates. 13 It was contrary, they urged, to the 
sixth canon of Nicsea, which declares that Rotne shall have the 
primacy. But this was shown at once to be a false reading. 
They then urged that the Bishops present who had signed the 
twenty-eighth canon had done so against their will. But this 
was indignantly and unanimously denied. The Judges finally 
decided in favor of the canon, the Bishops stood by their de- 
cision, and though Leo afterwards declared it null and void, as 
being contrary to the sixth canon of Nicaea, yet it became law 
in the Eastern Church, and even Rome at a later period was 
obliged to acquiesce in it. 14 

So ended a Synod, the most complete, the most End of the 
imposing, and in some respects the most important, 
of all that had gone under the name of Ecumenical Councils. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE MONOPHYSITES. 



The testimony of Chalcedon, like that of Ephesus, had its 
wholesome effect mainly upon the upper soil of the Effect of 
Empire, upon the cultivated and courtly Greek intel- the Counctl - 
lect. The elements that lay lower, the Coptic, Syriac, Oriental 
mind, were only stirred by it into a poisonous fermentation. 

*3 Concil. Chalced. Act. xvi. 

x 4 Tillemont, torn. xv. ; S. Leon, art. cxxxvii. 



542 History of the Church, 

In Egypt, the doom of Dioscorus was furiously resented. 
Alexandria broke out into riot and revolt. 1 On the arrival of 
„, ,, Proterius, the new Patriarch appointed at Chalcedon, 

Troubles * x 7 

in Egypt, the populace assaulted the magistrates and troops, 
stormed the old temple of Serapis in which they had 
taken refuge, and having at length seized the victims of their 
displeasure, committed them alive to the flames. A reinforce- 
ment from the capital changed the face of affairs. The soldiery 
were in turn triumphant ; the citizens were quelled : rape and 
robbery were the order of the day. 

A hollow truce ensued ; but faction was still busy beneath 
the surface. Timothy, a Presbyter, surnamed ^Elurus, the Cat, 
Timothy from his feline way of creeping into the cells of the 
Monks by night, sedulously fanned the embers of sedi- 
tion. The flames burst forth anew on the death of the Emperor. 
Proterius, the Patriarch, was the principal victim. Being mur- 
dered in the Baptistery, whither he had fled, he was 

Murder of ■> 

Proterius, disembowelled, dragged by a rope through the streets 

A.D. 457. 

amid the jeers of the crowd, torn limb from limb, and 
finally, with that thorough-going savagery which distinguished 
the Alexandrians, what remained of him was burnt and the ashes 
scattered to the winds. Timothy was believed to have been at 
the bottom of all this. He, however, charged it upon the sol- 
diers. It is more certain that he managed to get himself made 
Bishop, and that " the people of Alexandria, with their digni- 
taries, senators, and shipmasters," petitioned the Emperor Leo to 
ratify the act. But there was a protest from all quarters against 
such a profanation. Among others, Symeon, the pillar-saint, 
wrote earnestly to prevent it. In the end, Timothy the Cat was 
banished, and another Timothy was elected in his place. 

From that time, the history of the Church in Egypt is a 
melancholy picture of decay, varied only by a few saintly 
names, such as that of John the Almoner, 2 a man who left a 
memory worthy of better times. The mass of the people clung 

x Evag. ii. 5, 8-1 1. 

* Neale's H. E. Ch. Book III. 



The Monophy sites. 543 

to the tenets of Dioscorus. The Catholics kept up a feeble suc- 
cession in Alexandria, who were called, and called . ,. 

Decline of 

themselves, 3 Melchites or Rovalists : a name suffi- the Church 

. in Egypt. 

ciently indicative that the feud was political and so- 
cial as well as theological. Catholicism, in fact, seemed more 
and more, in the eyes of the Egyptians, the badge of an odious 
dependence upon Constantinople. It was a Hellenism which 
the true Copt had learned to abhor. 

A shadow of this growing alienation had appeared long be- 
fore in the times of the Meletian schism : we may see shadows 
glimpses of it also in the history of Monachism, and castbe f° re - 
nowhere more clearly than in the life of S. Antony himself. 

For it is noted of that Saint that he was ignorant of Greek, 
and spake to his " children" in their native tongue. The same 
is true of the great eremites in general. The strange 

° ° Monachism 

religious movement initiated by them, that mysterious Coptic, not 
epidemic which peopled the deserts and gave a new 
impulse to popular Christianity, drew its weird and sombre life 
from the old Coptic mind rather than from the sunny and ration- 
alizing Greeks. Yet so long as Greek rule centred in Alexan- 
dria, Egyptian Monachism was kept well in hand. Athanasius 
caressed it, Theophilus and Cyril were glad to humor it, Dios- 
corus corrupted it or was corrupted by it. But with the fall of 
Dioscorus the sceptre passed from Alexandria. Hellenism, in 
consequence, became foreign and detestable. Timothy the Cat, 
not a bad type of the old genius loci, began to purr portentously 
in the cells of the monks and in the hovels of the people. The 
country, in short, had followed with some reluctance the lead 
of Alexandria : from the sway of Constantinople it furiously 
revolted. 

It might have revolted from Christianity as well, 
had not the latter been provided with a hold on ative 

El& fit 6 fl ts 

the public mind much deeper than Greek culture, 

much stronger than the bonds which kept the Empire together. 

3Renaudot, p. 119. 



544 History of the Church. 

The Liturgies, it is probable, had been long celebrated in 
the Coptic as well as in the Greek : 4 the latter predominating 
„r t ■. ■ m the cities, the former in the country. From the 

Worship in J 

the vulgar time of Dioscorus, the Coptic prevailed more and 

longue. x i x 

more. Further south the Ethiopian was employed, 
or other vernacular tongues. In those languages the orthodoxy 
and devotion of the first four centuries remained, as it were, 
embalmed : for the flow of current speech soon drifted far away 
from the sacred standards, and the new religious idioms became 
as unintelligible and obsolete as the old. 

The Monophysite Patriarchs, so long as the Emperors main- 

Patriarch? tained a show of authority over Egypt, were obliged 

on s. tQ j- ye - n ex jj e . t h e i r residence being the monastery 

of S. Macarius, in the Thebais. Timothy the Cat, however, 
enjoyed a brief restoration to the throne of Alexan- 

A.D. 476-477. . 

dna, and was succeeded by Peter Mongus, one of the 
ablest of the sect. But he also was banished after a little while. 
His successors lived out of reach of the Greek tongue and Greek 
ideas, ruling numberless communities of monks, and keeping a 
firm hold through them upon the hearts of the people. 

Separated thus in language, in temper, in political views, in 
social and religious habits, in that bias of blood and race which 

no rule as yet has ever permanently subdued, Coptic 
Chris- Christianity has henceforth little in common with the 

tianity. 

Greek Establishment. Its sympathies are with the 
Vernacularism of the East : of which, as the Nestorian schism 
had carried off a large section, the Monophysites fell heirs to as 
much as remained. 

With regard to Egypt and its dependencies, Nubia, Ethiopia, 
Abyssinia and parts of Arabia, the quarrel was carried on with a 
Madness of mr y of which some unhappy examples have already 
the People, been given. It is needless to add more. 5 The decay 
of great States engenders a "madness of the people," to which 

4 Renaudot, Liturg. Oriental, cap. vi. ; Palmer's Origines Liturg. 
s In troublous times men's minds, especially in the East, are prone to ex- 
aggeration : so that the hundreds of thousands slain in some of the religious 



The Monophy > sites. 545 

no crime seems too atrocious, no folly too extravagant : so that 
the testimony of an ancient Bishop 6 may have a grain of truth 
in it when he declares that, " under the consulship of Venantius 
and Celer, the people of Alexandria and all Egypt were seized 
with a strange and diabolical frenzy : great and small, slaves 
and freedmen, monks and clergy, the natives of the land who 
opposed the Synod of Chalcedon, lost their speech and reason, 
barked like dogs, and tore with their own teeth the flesh from 
their own hands and arms. ' ' However this may be, Entire 
the alienation of the Egyptians went on increasing. Ahenatton - 
By the middle of the seventh century it had gone so far that, 
when the Saracens came in, the standard of the Church and 
Empire was upheld only by a trembling remnant in Alexandria: 
the mass of the people were ready to welcome the new yoke, 
and many of them, perhaps, the new religion. 

A like falling away, from the same or like causes, had fol- 
lowed the Council of Chalcedon in Palestine and General 
Syria. The monks, as usual, were at the bottom of away. 
the mischief. 

In Palestine, Theodosius and other ascetics had come back 
from the Council fuming with indignation. The Faith had 
been betrayed, their Order had been slighted. Such 
was the cry that resounded through the wilderness Palestine, 

A.D. 452. 

and kindled the monastic heart. The Patriarch Juve- 
nalis fled in terror from Jerusalem and took refuge in Constanti- 
nople : Theodosius, the meanwhile, ordaining whom he would, 
stirring the people far and wide to revolt against the Empire, 
and turning the Church upside down. The rebellion was sub- 
dued, and Juvenalis was restored to his See. But order and 
peace returned not with him. " Many sad occurrences followed 
his arrival, and either party indulged in whatever proceedings 
their anger suggested." 

riots might be safely reduced, perhaps, to as many hundreds. See Gibbon, 
ch. xlvii. v., and Neale, vol. ii. pp. 33, 44. 

6 Victor Tunnunensis, quoted by Gibbon, ch. xlvii. 



546 History of the Church. 

The quarrel, ostensibly, hinged upon a letter : whether 
Difference Christ is in, or of, two Natures, was a question that 
0/ a Letter. ma( j e men « rec kless of death in any shape," that 
excited the most bitter and enduring animosities. But, in 
reality, there was much that lay behind the apparent question. 
R ea i In Palestine, as in Egypt, the souls of men were galled 

by inveterate misrule : the harness of Greek sway had 
grown stiff and cumbersome, the back of Nativism was sore, 
and winced at every touch. 

In Syria, the chief agitator was Barsumas, the ringleader of 

that famous thousand who had abetted Eutyches and Dioscorus 

in the Robber Council. He also returned in a fury 

In Syria. 

from Chalcedon, where he had been condemned, and 
communicated his rage far and wide through Syria. Through 
some of his followers the infection extended into Mesopotamia 

and Armenia. In the middle of the sixth century, the 

Jacob J 

Baradaz, Monk Jacob, surnamed Baradai, or the Ragged, after - 

A.D. 541-578. 

wards Bishop of Edessa, propagated it more largely 
and organized it more powerfully. From him was the main 
line of Monophysite Patriarchs. From him the sect took the 
name Jacobite, by which it is best known in history. 

In all these instances the general result was the same : 7 the 
establishment of schismatical Patriarchates, with their dependen- 
Generai cies, in Syria, Armenia, Egypt ; the fixing of creeds, 
Result - canons, customs, and ritual observances, at the point 
which they had reached before the Council of Chalcedon ; the 
more general use, in worship, of the vernacular tongues ; a con- 
tinuous disintegration into sects and schisms ; yet withal a cer- 
tain conservatism, in the midst of furious agitations, 8 which 
fossilized the religion of three, as Nestorianism had done that 
of two, General Councils, and kept it a mute witness to later 
times. 

Such conservatism, however, was of the letter rather than 

7 See Assemanni, Bibliothec. Oriental, torn. ii. 

8 The Liturgies were the conservative element : and the very violence of 
controversy made men jealous of any alterations in the Liturgies. 



The Monophy sties. 547 

of the spirit. The Monophysite heresy professed, like the Nes- 
torian, to follow the old paths and to be content with Nature 0/ 
the old definitions. But the root of both errors was ihe Heresy - 
an aversion to the mystery of the Incarnation. From a bias 
usually ascribed to Oriental philosophy, but belonging, The same 
perhaps, to philosophy in general, men shrank from in ^ithihe 
such a nearness of God and man. They endeavored Nestortan - 
to evade it : Nestorius, by separating the two Natures in two 
distinct persons ; Eutyches, by so joining the two as to cause 
the less to be swallowed up of the greater. 

Of the numberless Monophysite sects, 9 the Armenians were 
chiefly Eutychian : they held, that is, to the tenet of a phantas- 
mal or ethereal body, and were called Phantasiasts or sects, 
Docetce. There were numerous shades of this opinion. Eut y chians - 
The Incorrupticolce. held that the Flesh of Christ was not subject 
to the usual wear and repair of the human body : their oppo- 
nents they branded as Phthartolatrce, Ktistolatroz , worshippers 
of the corruptible, creature-worshippers. They differed, and 
split into minor sects, on the question whether the Flesh of 
Christ was created incorruptible, or rendered incorruptible, or 
uncreated as well as incorruptible. The Theopaschites main- 
tained that the Divinity suffered on the Cross : their symbol, 
however, the addition to the Trisagion of the phrase, " Who 
wast crucified for us, ' ' can be easily understood in an orthodox 
sense. 

The Egyptians followed Dioscorus, and contended that as 
body and soul make one man, so the Divinity and Hu- Dioscorians. 
manity ?nake up one compound Nature in Christ. These again 
were divided into numerous sects. 

Syria was the great battle-field of Orientalism in general. 
There Eutychians and Dioscorians anathematized one syriathe 
another : while both waged a vigorous war with the Batile -S ield - 
Catholics and Nestorians. There was a disposition, however, 
to fall back occasionally on the ground of indifferentism ; 10 so 

9 Asseman. torn. ii. Dissertat. iv. ; Neale's H. E. Ch. vol. ii. iii. I. 

10 Asseman. torn. ii. Dissertat. iii. 



54-8 History of the Church. 

that the religious strifes of the East were diversified by truces 
and times of intercommunion. 

In the meanwhile the Emperors, who were virtually the 
Policy of the popes of the Melchites, the heads and defenders of 

™pei Greek Catholicism, were doing what they could to 
settle the religious quarrels of their subjects. 

With this view, Leo, Marcian's successor, consulted the 
Leo, Metropolitans of the East as to the expediency of 

A ' D ' 45 ' passing by the decrees of Chalcedon :" they, how- 
ever, declined to concur in any such measure. 

With the same view, Zeno, by the advice of the Patriarch 
Acacius, issued his famous Ilenoticon™ or edict of unity. To 
Zeno. The P ut an en d to a strife "by which multitudes were de- 

enohcon. p r j ve( j f trie Laver of Regeneration, and multitudes 
more of the grace of the Divine Communion ; through which 
murders innumerable were committed, so that earth and the 
very air were defiled with blood : " he declared that the Faith 
of the Three Hundred and Eighteen, with the added testimony 
of Constantinople and Ephesus, including the twelve Anathemas 
of Cyril and the anathemas pronounced against Nestorius and 
Eutyches, would be satisfactory and sufficient. The Council 
of Chalcedon and the Tome of Leo he quietly passed over. 
How The omission was intended as a peace-offering to the 

Egyptians, and was favorably received by large num- 
bers, both of the heretics and moderate Catholics. Peter the 
Fuller and Peter Mongus, the Monophysite Patriarchs in Anti- 
och and Alexandria, gave in their adherence. But many of 
their party broke off from them, and were thenceforth known in 
Schism of history as Acephali, or Headless. Among the Catho- 
Eastand j- cg faere were similar divisions. Felix II. of Rome, 
a.d. 4 84-5'9- resenting the slight put upon his See in the omission 
of Leo's Tome from the Henoticon, refused to commune with 
the Greek Church till the wrong should be redressed ; and the 
schism lasted thirty-five years. His name, when he died, was 
omitted from the diptychs of Constantinople. On the other 
11 Evag. ii. 9, io. I2 Evag. iii. 14. 



The Monophy sites. 549 

hand, there was no place in the Roman diptychs for some of the 
most saintly of the Oriental Bishops. What was worse, certain 
Monks in the Eastern capital, the Akcemetae or watchers, took 
part with Rome : which enabled the latter to harass the rival 
See, keeping it in a state of perpetual irritation. 

Anastasius came to the throne, an old man, fond of peace, 
averse to the shedding of blood, anxious to conciliate all differ- 
ences of opinion. But in times of general ferment, 
neutrality, to be effective, is forced £0 take up arms, course of 

Anastasius. 

and tolerance becomes less tolerant than bigotry itself. 
Such proved to be the case with the well-intentioned Emperor. 
" He deposed those Bishops who proclaimed, and those who 
anathematized, the Council of Chalcedon." 13 He let them 
alone, however, if the avowal of their tenets provoked no op- 
position ; and he countermanded the sentence of deposition, in 
case the enforcing of it should be violently resisted . The result 
of it all was a decided increase of the spirit of sedition. 

Constantinople especially was the theatre of religious tu- 
mults, 14 occasioned by an attempt, on the part of certain Monks, 
to introduce the chanting of the Trisagion with \kz Riots in the 
Antiochean addition, " Thou that wast crucified for Ca P ltal - 
us." The first attempts of the kind were easily enough put 
down. Afterwards the Emperor was advised to enforce the tol- 
eration of the obnoxious chant, and two of his officers under- 
took to sing it in church. A furious riot ensued. The friends of 
the old Trisagion and the votaries of the new paraded the streets, 
chanting their respective symbols. From words to blows, from 
blows to bloodshed, and from bloodshed to a complete satur- 
nalia of incendiarism, sacrilege, pillage, was common enough in 
an age when Liberty, if it breathed at all, breathed only in con- 
vulsive outbreaks. In the present instance, the throne itself was 
shaken in the tumult. There was a cry on all sides for 

Anastasius 

the Emperor to resign. Anastasius submitted. He resigns, 

A D. 512. 

appeared before the mob with his diadem in his hand; 
hearkened with meek attention to the orthodox Trisagion which 
J 3 Evag. iii. 30, 34. ** Evag. iii. 44. 



55 o History of the Church. 

they thundered in his ears ; and finally, professing himself will- 
ing to abdicate, called upon them, "as all could not reign," to 
make choice of one to be his successor. The crowd was molli- 
fied ; and Anastasius, having appeased them further by the blood 
of the two obnoxious officers, was allowed to resume the sem- 
blance of imperial power. 

Concessions more ample still were extorted by Vitalian, a 

Scythian chief, who, enlisting a horde of Huns in the cause of 

Chalcedon and R,ome, devastated Thrace, and threat - 

Rtbflhon 

r/i r itaimn, ened Constantinople. More than sixty-five thousand 
are said to have perished in this rebellion. Anastasius 
purchased peace by a reconciliation with Rome, the recall of the 
banished Bishops, and the establishment of the authority of the 
Council of Chalcedon. 



CHAPTER V. 

JUSTINIAN AND THE FIFTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 

Justinian was better fitted to play the part of a lay pope, and 
his reign exhibited a rank growth of those vices which spring 
Justinian, fro m tne mingled seed of politics and religion. 1 Like 
a.d. 527-565. Theodosius II., he affected the life of a monk, and 
cherished monkish superstitions. Like Constantius, he spent 
his time in the critical balancing of dogmas. Like Valens, he 

1 Gibbon, ch. xl-xliv. Procopius, the chief authority on Justinian's reign, 
has left a public history, and a secret : the latter showing how little reliance 
can be placed on the coloring of the former. It is not easy to decide which 
of the two pictures is nearer the truth. The " Anecdotes," however, present 
the portrait of a demon rather than of a man, and the amount of vituperation 
in them is grossly in excess of the credible facts : such portraiture is open to 
grave suspicion. 



Justinian and the Fifth General Council. 551 

was a ruthless persecutor : heretics, Jews, Samaritans, pagans, 
were all victims in turn of his remorseless edicts ; if the Catho- 
lics escaped, it was only because his last change of opinion 
occurred too near his death to allow time for its enforcement. 
His wife, Theodora, whom he had raised from the con- 

,.. r , _ , . Theodora. 

dition of an actress to that of partner of his throne, 2 
is said to have broken somewhat the force of his tyranny, by 
putting herself at the head of the opposition party. 3 When he 
was orthodox, she took care to favor the Monophysites. When 
he addicted himself to that faction of the circus known as the 
Blues, she enrolled herself among the Greens. Thus the Impe- 
rial ship was steadied to the popular breath, each of the great 
religious and political factions having its own interest in it. 

A more legitimate source of popularity was the munificence, 
truly imperial, 4 though accompanied (it was said) with an avarice 
greedy as the sea, with which he strengthened or public 
adorned the Empire, by the erection of castles, cities, n ° rks - 
bridges, aqueducts, monasteries, churches, alms-houses, hospi- 
tals and other public works. The Church of S. Sophia, burnt 
by the mob in a sedition known as the Nika, was rebuilt with a 
solidity which remains after thirteen centuries, though shorn of 
the wealth of beauty with which it was originally adorned. 5 

His industry and skill were still more signally displayed in 

2 Even on the showing of Procopius, Theodora made an irreproachable 
wife, and the constancy of Justinian is beyond all question ; we may well 
doubt, therefore, whether all the filth related of her early life on the stage is 
more worthy of credit than her commerce with the Lemtires, or other lies told 
by the same Procopius. In this matter, Gibbon's love of scandal gets the 
better of his critical faculty. 

3 Evag. iv. 10. 

4 Procop. Csesariensis, De ALdificiis Dn. Justinian. In the Anecdotes it 
is related that a cei'tain monk saw Justinian swallowing the seas, the bays, the 
rivers, and even all the sewers of the earth : so great was his avarice. Hist. 
Arcan. cap. xix. He disgorged, however, as rapidly as he swallowed, so that 
the seas and even the sewers continued to flow on. 

5 Gibbon has admirably brought together the descriptions of Procopius 
and others, ch. xl. 



5 5 2 History of the Church. 

his reform of the Roman Laws. 6 In this great work, as in other 
achievements of his reign, he was largely indebted, of 

Reform of ° ° J 

th- Roman course, to the workmen he employed : but the ability 

Laws. ■*■ J J 

to choose good workmen, and rightly to direct their 
labors, is the most useful of imperial talents. 

Such a sovereign, restless, inquisitive, crafty, industrious, 
greedy of every kind of fame, and in the main not unpopular, 
An imfie- could hardly fail to stretch to the utmost his supremacy 
* e ' in spiritual, as well as temporal, affairs. He was in a 
position, moreover, favorable to such pretensions. The victo- 
ries of his great general, the hero Belisarius, had brought the 
West again under the Greek sway, and Roman popery was 
forced to yield to that of Constantinople. 

It was one of the worst fruits of the polemical spirit of the 
day, that the desire to root out error was greatly in 

Tenets of J ' to J 

Origen excess of sober zeal for the Truth : a definition of the 

condemned. 

Faith was apt to be held in honor, in proportion to 
the anathemas that followed in its train. Justinian opened a 
new field for the exercise of this spirit, 7 by turning men's atten- 
tion to the errors of the dead. Collecting certain opinions 
imputed to Origen, he anathematized them by an edict, and 
induced the Roman and Eastern Patriarchs to concur in his 
decree. This opened the way for a step of much greater 
moment. 

A chief obstacle, it was thought, to unity among the East- 
erns, lay in the fact that Chalcedon had shown too great a ten- 
The Three derness to the friends of Nestorius. There were three 
Chapters. t ]-,j n g S especially which had not been condemned : the 
Letter of Theodoret against Cyrif s anathemas ; the calumnious 
Letter of Ibas to Maris the Persian ; the rationalistic works of 
Theodorus of Mopsuestia. The Emperor was wrought upon to 
do with these as he had done with the tenets of Origen. The 
four Patriarchs of the East reluctantly concurred. The West 
was more refractory : for it was suspected that the condemna- 

6 See Gibbon's noble chapter on this subject, ch. xliv. 

7 Evag. iv. 38. 



yustinian and the Fifth General Council. 553 

tion of the "Three Chapters," as they were called, was a covert 
attack upon the credit of Chalcedon. An African Synod refused 
outright "to anathematize the dead." Vigilius of Rome was 
at first equally decided. But coming to Constanti- Po p e 

nople, in obedience to an order from the Emperor, he Vi s iltus - 
was partly forced, partly wheedled, into a more complaisant 
frame of mind. After many vacillations, he anathematized 
the Three Chapters, putting in a salvo for the honor of Chal- 
cedon, and asked for a General Council, that the act might be 
approved. 

The Bishops were brought together to the number of one 
hundred and sixty-five, among whom were five Africans, the 
only prelates from the West. 8 Vigilius was ill at ease, Fl y :Jl 

and on the plea of sickness declined to be present. couZ^t 
Every breeze that came from the West bore to his ears A-D * S53- 
the rumors of rebellion. After the fourth "conference," or 
session, the Council having reached and anathematized the 
writings of Theodoras, he attempted to interpose with a " Con- 
stitutum," condemning certain opinions without mentioning 
names, and forbidding the Bishops to discuss the question 
further. The document, it is probable, never reached the 
Council. The Bishops, at all events, paid no atten- 

The Three 

tion to it, but condemned the Three Chapters : inas- chapters 

rr-n i 1 1 condemned. 

much, however, as rheodoret and Ibas had repented 
of their error and had been absolved at Chalcedon, their per- 
sons were excepted from the sentence passed upon their opin- 
ions. Vigilius, a few months later, allowed his scruples to give 
way to Imperial persuasion, ascribing his previous obstinacy to 
the instigation of the devil. 

Little good resulted, so far as the East was concerned. The 
Monophysites were not appeased. The Origenians, a name that 
still applied to some of the monks of Palestine, were Effect 0/ 
deeply aggrieved : for the Council had either ex- the CounciL 
pressly, or implicitly, anathematized their tenets. In the West, 

8 Mansi, ix. ; Hardouin, iii. 
24 



554 History of the Church. 

there were hot disputes and formidable schisms. Milan and 
Schisms in Ravenna separated from Rome : Aquileia and the 
Istrian Bishops refused to be reconciled for about a 
century and a half. 

Justinian became a convert, in his old age, to the heresy of 
Justinian the Incorrupticolae ; 9 and putting forth an edict, pre- 

eretlc - pared to persecute in their behalf. Anastasius, the 

Antiochean Patriarch, made ready for resistance. The crisis was 

averted by the sudden death of the Imperial heresiarch. His 

successors, the well-meaning but weak Justin, the able 

Successors, and virtuous Tiberius, the unfortunate Maurice, 10 were 

A.D. 565-610. 

too much absorbed m secular troubles to meddle much 
with theology. The same was true of Phocas, the monster and 
usurper. Heraclius, in six victorious campaigns worthy of the 
Heradius, best days of Rome, broke the power of Chosroes the 
a.d. 610-641. p ers j arij anc j cr owned his triumphs by the redemption 
of innumerable captives and by the restoration of the Wood of 
the true Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusa- 
lem. But the effort had drained the resources of the Empire 
and the manly virtues of the Emperor. Persia, the rival king- 
dom, was equally exhausted. The conflict of ages between 
Greek and Persian power, a conflict which Rome had inherited 
and stubbornly continued, ended by leaving both a prey to a 
new and strange foe. For it was in the latter days of Heraclius 
that the "little horn" appeared in a corner of his dominions, 
Firsi which was destined ere long to threaten the whole 

ijyoads wor i(3 e "While the Emperor triumphed 11 at Constan- 
Saracens. tinople or Jerusalem, an obscure town on the confines 
of Syria was pillaged by the Saracens, and they cut in pieces 
some troops who advanced to its relief: an ordinary and trifling 

9 Evag. iv. 39-41. 

10 In the reign of Maurice, Evagrius finished his History, bringing it 
down to the year 594. The inflated style of this production, and its excessive 
fondness for the marvellous, are counterbalanced by the honesty and piety 
apparent in every page. 

11 Gibbon, end of chap. xlvi. 



Monothelite Heresy. 555 

occurrence, had it not been the prelude of a mighty revolution. 
These robbers were the apostles of Mohammed : their fanatic 
valor had emerged from the desert ; and in the last eight years 
of his reign, Heraclius lost to the Arabs the same provinces 
which he had rescued from the Persians." 



CHAPTER VI. 

MONOTHELITE HERESY AND THE SIXTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 

The danger from this quarter did not prevent the Emperor from 

engaging in one more attempt to stay the tottering ark 

of religion. The end of his reign witnessed a new of the 

° ° One Will. 

effort to conciliate heresy, and consequently a new 
heresy to be condemned. By the advice of the Patriarch Ser- 
gius, he put forth an edict affirming the existence of but one 
Will in Christ. 

It was the last link of a long chain of efforts, beginning with 
Apollinaris, or rather with the Docetae, to find something in 
which the Manhood assumed by our Lord might differ Nature of 
in nature from the Humanity inherited from Adam. theHeres y- 
Sin only excepted, He was made in all things like unto us. But 
' ' sin ' ' might be thought identical with the sinful will in man ; 
and the " sinful will" might easily be confounded with the 
human will. To deny "sin," therefore, in Christ, seemed to 
carry with it a denial of the " human will " in Christ. Further- 
more, it was argued, the will pertains to man's personality rather 
than to his nature. 1 When our Lord, therefore, assumed man's 

1 For subtle discussions of this subject see documents in Mansi Concilia, 
Sixth Gen. Council. 



556 History of the Church. 

nature, He did not take his will. The will of the Word acted 
in and through the two Natures, by what was callec a theandric 
operation. 

It was a theological trap ingeniously contrived ; and, baited 

as it was with the hope of conciliation, most of the Easterns 

greedily fell into it. The Patriarchs of Antioch and 

Four & J 

Patriarchs Alexandria were among the number. The latter of 

deceived. 

these, Cyrus, was enabled on the strength of it to 

reconcile to the Church one of the Monophysite sects. But 

Sophronius, a monk, afterwards Patriarch of Terusa- 

Sophronius J 

sounds an lem, saw the danger and sounded the alarm. He 

Alarm. & 

showed that to deny the human will in Christ, or to 
deny even the natural operation of that will, was to detract from 
His perfect Humanity and to bring in the error of Apollinaris 
under another form. The tide of opinion soon began to turn. 
Sergius found it necessary to look for a new ally, and wrote, 
Honorius on the subject, to Honorius of Rome. Honorius 
of Rome. answe red by a letter, in which he committed himself 
to the heresy, deprecating, however, all further discussion. But 
the Church by this time was thoroughly aroused. Men stood 
forth on every side to impugn the new dogma. Some who at 
first had readily received it showed themselves eager to retrace 
their steps. 

Within nine years after the issuing of his first edict, Herac- 

lius found it necessary to modify his decree. He put forth the 

Ecthesis, so called, declaring the twofold operation to 

Ecthesis, be an open question. But by this time the orthodox 

instinct of old Rome was once more awakened. Pope 

John IV. rejected the Ecthesis, and girded himself for battle. 

Nine years later still, Constans II. framed a new edict called 
the Typus, prohibiting controversy. He might as well have for- 
The Tyj>us, bidden the winds to blow. Theodore of Rome breaks 
a.d. 6 4 8. Q ^ comm union with Constantinople ; and, somewhat 
later, Martin I., in a Roman Synod, condemns the Ecthesis 
and Typus, and boldly anathematizes the Monothelite leaders. 
This was more than Constans could bear. Pope Martin was 



Monothelite Heresy, 557 

seized by the order of the Emperor ; brought to Constanti- 
nople ; thrown into a dungeon; convicted, through Cruel 
hired witnesses, of treason and conspiracy; and finally, Tre o/p e % 
after innumerable insults, was banished to the Cher- Martin. 
sonesus, where he died. Others of the orthodox leaders were 
treated still more outrageously. They were scourged, deprived 
of their tongues and their right hands, conducted in mockery 
through the streets, and ignominiously hurried into exile. 

While controversy thus raged, the Saracens were wresting 
from the Emperors the fairest provinces of their domin- Saracen 
ions : or rather, it required little wresting ; for tyranny Con ? uesis - 
and corruption had long since done their work, and the tree was 
no sooner touched than the rotten fruit fell. Jerusalem, under 
the Patriarch Sophronius, maintained its old character _ 

Jerusalem 

for obstinate resistance : 2 but after a siege of four taken. 

A.D. 637 

months, in which not a day passed without fighting, it 
was forced to submit to a yoke heavier than it had ever borne 
before. Under the same yoke it has continued ever since ; with 
the exception of eighty-eight years of Latin occupation during 
the Crusades. Damascus had fallen four years before Jerusalem : 
Tyre, Caesarea, and numberless other places submitted within a 
few years after. By the middle of the century, Alex- Alexandria, 
andria and Egypt, with the isle of Cyprus, passed un- A-D * 647 " 
der the yoke of Islam. The Empire, in fact, was threatened in 
every part, and had little to oppose to the invader, save the 
passive resistance of mere weight and bulk. Constan- 

Constanti- 

tinople, however, was saved by the strength of its nopiesxved, 

A D 077 

walls, by the courage of despair, and by the timely 
invention of the terrible Greek fire. 3 The conquerors were not 
only checked for awhile, but were forced to do homage for their 
possessions in Syria and Egypt, by the payment of a nominal 
tribute. 

2 Ockley's History of the Saracens ; Gibbon, chap. li. Hi. 

3 The timeliness of those discoveries and inventions which have placed 
Christian civilization so far in advance of all others, might form the title of an 
interesting chapter in the Providential History of the World. 



558 History of the Church. 

Constantine Pogonatus, under whom this last event hap- 
pened, was orthodox in his views, and the Patriarchs by 
sixth whom he was guided had begun to grow weary of a 

council bootless controversy. A sixth General Council was 
t.-D. 680. d u iy convened. Among the higher prelates, Macarius 
of Antioch alone stood up for the now disreputable doctrine of 
the One Will in Christ. He was assisted by a monk named 
Polycronius, who offered to raise a dead man to life, in proof 
of the dogma. The Council accepted his offer, and a corpse 
was brought in. The monk failed in his experiment, but was 
not convinced of his error. The Synod deposed Macarius, ex- 
communicated the monk, and anathematized the names of Ser- 
gins, Pope Honorius, 4 and other Monothelite leaders. Finally 
the Bishops, to the number of one hundred and sixty, 

Two Wilis, l ' J ' 

Two opera- signed a declaration that "in Christ there are two 

tions. , , ... 

natural Wills, and two Operations, without division, 
change, confusion : that the human Will does not conflict 
with the Divine, but follows it, and in all things is subjected 
to it." 

About ten years later, under the reign of Justinian II., a 
larger assembly, held in Trullo, in the domed chapel of the 

Palace, and hence known as the Trullan (or, as it is 
Truiianor otherwise called, the Quinisext) Council, confirmed 

Quimsext t \ 

Council, the decrees of the six Ecumenical Synods, and put 

forth one hundred and eleven canons, including 

eighty-five attributed to the Apostles. These became law in 



4 Pope Honorius has been excused on every possible ground : so far, 
however, as the question of infallibility is concerned, no argument can shake 
the fact that the Sixth Council believed a Pope might err in matters of faith, 
and that one Pope at least had so erred. It is equally certain that some of the 
successors of Honorius took the same view as the Council. For an ample 
discussion of the subject, see Forbesii, Instruct. Historicce-Theolog. lib. v; 
Pagi, Breviarium PP. Rom. S. Agatho. Pontif ; Natalis Alexandr. Scec. 
Septim. Dissert, ii. [See also the copious literature that has sprung out of 
the so-called CEcumenical Council at Rome, which in 1870 professed to define 
the Personal Infallibility of the Pope. See also Appendix. — Editor.] 



The Sixth General Council. 559 

the Eastern Church. In the West, Pope Sergius III. refused to 
sign them, and the growing estrangement between Rome and 
Constantinople was thereby increased. 

Not long after, an attempt was made to revive the Mono- 
thelite heresy, and the Emperor Philippicus induced a servile 
Synod to condemn the Sixth Council. But it proved The 

a little cloud which soon passed over. The error lin- Maromtes - 
gered for some centuries among the inhabitants of Libanus, an 
offshoot from the old Phoenician stock, who in the beginning 
of the eighth century were elevated to civil and religious in- 
dependence by their Patriarch John Maron, and successfully 
resisted the Moslem yoke. In the twelfth century they sub- 
mitted to the See of Rome. 



Thus ends a long war of four centuries, a continuous battle 
for the Faith, in which the Greek and Latin and Oriental mind, 
excited to an almost preternatural heat, had assailed, The Work 
and defended, every imaginable point at which the pushedTy 
Creed could be attacked, and with every kind of $/ General 
weapon that human passion or human subtlety could Councils. 
supply. If we look at the mere details of the strife, faith is 
shocked by the weakness, waywardness, and wickedness of re- 
ligious men. If we look at the result, the Creed stands out 
before us, with a solidity, symmetry and consistency which, but 
for the long war against it, could hardly have been appreciated, 
but which, in the sequel of the history of Christendom, at least 
in its more living parts, has been universally acknowledged. 
With such a work accomplished, it is idle to criticise the way 
in which the work was done. The saints of the period of the 
six General Councils were called to labor for the Faith : we 
have entered into the fruit of their labors. Where The Fai h 
they were obliged to " contend earnestly," we have *'*'• 

little else to do than to receive and enjoy. It can be put down 
to their credit, and it is the utmost that can be said of the men 
of any period, that having fought a good fight and finished 



5 6o History of the Church. 

their course, they kept the Faith. The defects that a critic 5 may 
discern in their manner of fighting or of working, may serve 
indeed as a warning, to deter us from similar errors, but are 
more useful still as an encouragement ; showing, as they do, 
that the work of God is not defeated by human weakness, but 
that age after age, and period after period, accomplishes its 
appointed task : that however much of the cheaper material, 
the wood, hay, stubble, may perish in a Divine purgation, yet 
something true and costly, costly of sweat and toil and treasure 
and blood, will always be found to remain, the contribution 
which each age makes to the work of, perhaps, countless ages. 

s The sneers of Gibbon and the half-sneers of his Christian imitators, in 
reference to the history of controversy, amount simply to this : that, in the 
defence and confirmation of the Gospel, there was a vast expenditure of hu- 
man blood and brain. But we may ask, looking at the question from a merely 
worldly point of view, how could blood and brain have been spent to better 
purpose ? Gibbon replies, in substance, that they might have been devoted to 
the defence of the Empire against the outside Barbarians. The monks might 
have been turned into soldiers, the priests into politicians and sophists, or, 
perhaps, mandarins. In short, the Western world, like the Eastern, might 
have had its China. We may well doubt whether the world in general would 
have been benefited by the exchange. [It is their glory that with all their 
might they fought for the Faith. The mode of their warfare was naturally 
that which was readily supplied by the civilization of the age in which they 
lived. Our higher civilization has made us so refined that we hardly care to 
fight for the Faith at all. Moreover, the building of the outer walls is far 
rougher work than the internal finish of the palace chambers. — Editor.] 



^ppmbte. 



[The following brief summary of the leading facts in the case of Pope 
Honorius is taken from a fragment in Dr. Mahan's handwriting, supplemented 
by the Editor from the learned and able pamphlet of P. Le Page Renouf on 
The Condemnation of Pope Honorius (London, Longmans, 1868), and other 
sources.] 

The Emperor Heraclius, hoping to reconcile the Monophysites, came to an 
understanding with their leaders to accept a compromise which asserted the 
doctrine of only one Divine-human energy (evepyeca) or operation, and of one 
will in Christ. 

Sophronius, an acute monk of Palestine, afterwards Patriarch of Jerusalem, 
asserted on the contrary, two wills and two operations of Christ, — the Divine 
and the human. He refers the case to Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople. 

Sergius refuses to assert one will, or two wills ; or one operation or two 
operations ; but affirms that the one Jesus Christ hepyeiv ra re Qela nal rd 
avdpuiuva. He objects also to two operations, as 6vo 0£?jj/na~a kvavriuQ irpbq 
aTJiTjXa ex 0VTa i etc * Sergius writes his view of the case fully, in a " dog- 
matic epistle," to Honorius of Rome, asking his judgment in the matter. 

Honorius, having received the letters both of Sophronius and Sergius, 
replies, fully approving the doctrinal statements of Sergius, and confirming his 
arguments by many more of the same kind. He decides authoritatively, " for 
the instruction and knowledge of those who are in perplexity," that the two-fold 
operation is a " scandal," a "new invention," and that Sophronius "should 
not persist in preaching the formula of two operations ; " affirming moreover 
that he makes " one Confession," and agrees " in one spirit, v/ith a like 
teaching of the Faith," with Sergius. 

The doctrine of Sophronius was, from the first, carefully guarded against 
the misconstructions under cover of which attempts have been made to 
excuse Honorius. He affirmed that one Christ, abiding inseparably and incon- 
fuse in two Natures, performed truly and wisely, and without stain of sin, 
everything that belongs to our human nature. These assertions were against 



562 Appendix. 

the errors, First, that what he suffered in the flesh, he suffered involuntarily, 
under compulsion, in bonds, etc. ; Secondly, that the Divine Nature in any way 
overpowered or anticipated the human, not allowing it time to act ; Thirdly, 
that the Incarnation should be made to appear merely nominal. Sophronius 
also explicitly asserted the One Person of Christ, etc. 

In the Sixth General Council there were publicly read, and critically 
examined, copies of the Synodical Epistles of Sophronius, and of the " Dog- 
matic Epistles" of Sergius and Honorius ; and before being acted on, these 
copies were carefully compared with the originals, in the Chartophylacium at 
Constantinople, and were found to be correct. Finally, the doctrines of both 
Sergius and Honorius were condemned, rejected, and anathematized, as heret- 
ical ; and they, with several others, were anathematized by name. The doctrine 
of Sophronius was at the same time approved as agreeing with the true Faith, 
and with the doctrine of the Apostles and Fathers, — orthodox and salutary 
to the Holy Catholic Church; and his name was inserted in the diptychs. 
(N. B. — At the end of Actio XIII., the Council expressly declares, that 
Sergius and Honorius are condemned, not only on information given concern- 
ing them, but after diligently comparing the writings of them both.) 

The Council was not content with anathematizing Sergius and Honorius 
once. They repeated the anathema a second time in Actio XVIII., in the 
Synodical Definition ; a third time, in the same Actio, in the Exclamatio to 
the Emperor ; a fourth time, in the prophonetic or acclamatory sermon to the 
same ; a fifth time, in the Synodal Letter to Pope Agatho of Rome : and 
in each of these five acts, the Papal legates took part, and signed their 
names. A sixth repetition occurs in the Edict of the Emperor, embodying 
the action of the Council. Pope Leo II. then took up the work of anathe- 
matizing his predecessor as a heretic. He first of all acknowledges the receipt 
of the "Acts" of the Council, and adds that he concurs in the anathema 
against Honorius by name, " who, instead of laboring to keep the Apostolic 
Church pure by the teaching of Apostolic tradition, suffered it, the immacu- 
late, to be polluted through his profane betrayal." In his letter to the Spanish 
Count Simplicius, age in and yet again in his letters to the Spanish Bishops, 
and in another letter to the Spanish king Ervigius, the same anathema for 
heresy is reiterated against Honorius. In the life of Leo II. by Anastasius 
the Librarian, the same fact is repeated once more. The anathema was 
further repeated by the Quinisext Council ; then again by the Second Council 
of Nice, and also by that which Rome acknowledges as the Eighth General 
Council, — this last being the most significant, since, as Mr. Renouf says, 
" its proceedings were entirely carried on under Roman influence," whereas 
the sixtn and seventh General Councils were Oriental. Nor was this all. 
The anathema of Honorius as a heretic was repeated, for ages, by every 
successor of Leo II. in the See of Rome, at his accession ; and it was incor- 



Appendix, 563 

porated into the Breviary, so that the condemnation of Honorius for the 
Monothelite heresy was repeated annually for a thousand years by every priest 
and prelate who made faithful use of his Breviary. It would really seem as 
if there never had been, since the world began, a more notoriously or more 
thoroughly anathematized heretic than Pope Honorius of Rome. 

Against all this, the advocates of Honorius either deny the fact of his con- 
demnation for heresy, or else they dispute the equity of it. 

As to the fact, the apologists of Pope Honorius, says Renouf, " constantly 
hesitate between solutions which are asserted to be indisputable, but which 
are nevertheless subversive of each other. Honorius, it is said, was unjustly 
condemned; he was not condemned; he could not have been condemned, 
and all the documents, Greek and Latin, acts of Councils and Pope's letters, 
asserting the condemnation, are forgeries ; he was condemned only as a 
private Doctor. The heretical letters ascribed to him were forged by the 
Monothelites, to countenance their heresy; they were forged by orthodox 
Greeks to bring disgrace upon a Pope; his letters are perfectly orthodox. 
Some of these solutions are out of date ; other solutions, quite as irreconcilable 
with facts, are still flourishing." As to " forgeries," Mr. Renouf says : " It is 
idle to waste words on this part of the subject. No one now doubts the genu- 
ineness of any of the documents bearing upon the question How- 
ever plausible such assertions may have been in former days, they are now 
destitute of interest, and none but grossly ignorant persons could have recourse 
to them." Perrone says that there is no room for even a slight suspicion of 
either adulteration or forgery. 

The attempts to explain away the indisputable condemnation are equally 
unhappy. 

1. Turrecremata held that in this matter both Popes and Councils had 
fallen into error in dogmatic fact. Bellarmine attributes to the Council 
" intolerable error and impudence." Baronius says that "nothing could be 
imagined more wicked, more impudent, or more foolish," than their conduct. 
"This is respectful language," says Renouf, "to use about an Ecumenical 
Council approved by the Pope;" or rather, three Ecumenical Councils 
approved by a long line of Popes. 

2. De Maistre's idea that the condemnation of a Pope was a piece of 
Greek impudence is not new ; but how explain the consent of the Papal leg- 
ates, and Pope Leo's confirmation of the Council and his promulgation of its 
acts ? 

3. As to the justice of the condemnation, he was condemned for heresy. 
" It is a simple untruth to say that he was condemned for neglect, criminal 
remissness, and tolerating heretics instead of excommunicating them. It is as 
a heretic that he was anathematized over and over again." His first letter 
was condemned as proving that " he followed the mind of Sergius in all 



564 v Appendix. 

i 

things." His " second letter was ordered to be burnt as impious and soul- 
destroying The Monothelites appealed to the authority of Honorius, 

as one who agreed with them, — the Council no less decidedly declares that 
Honorius agreed with them, and anathematizes him on this account." 

4. The question as to whether he was condemned as a private Doctor or as 
a Pope is of more interest to Romish theologians than to us ; and we refer all 
who would examine it further to Renouf, a singularly learned and candid 
Roman Catholic himself, who declares it to be " a mockery to consider the 
Pope's solemn, public, and most earnest reply to the Eastern Patriarchs other- 
wise than as ex cathedra" The question is also treated with great learning 
and spirit in Janus, and by Bishop Maret, and many of the other brilliant and 
powerful writers who have been called into activity by the Vatican Council 
of 1870. 

See also Scene II. of the Comedy of Canonization in Vol. III. of Dr. 
Mahan's Works, among his Miscellaneous Writings. 



INDEX. 



Abbot, 478. 
Abdas, 474. 
Abgar, 34. 
Abraxas, 154. 
Abyssinia, 301. 

evangelized, 474. 
Acacians, 417, 427, 429. 
Acacius, of Cassarea, 417. 
Acacius, Patriarch, advises Henoticon, 

458. 
Acephali, 548. 
Acesius, 243, 285. 
Achaia, 306. 
Achillas, of Alexandria, 298. 

absolves and promotes Arius, 298. 
Actors, 233. 

Acts of the Apostles, 35, 84. 
Adam's salvation, 156, 162. 
Adjuration of Irenseus, 186. 
^Elia Capitolina, 46. 
yEon system, 149. 
Aerius, 449. 
JEs chines, 168. 
Aetians, 418, 430. 
Aetius, 417. 
African Church, North, 209-243, 301, 

character of the People, 209. 

when evangelized, 210. 

evangelized from Rome, 21 1. 

overrun with vices, 228. 

early decay, 211. 



Agape, 93, 327. 

abused, 227, 327, 328. 
Agrippinus, 211, 224. 
Ahriman, 149, 157. 
Alban, Martyr, 344. 
Alcibiades, Ascetic Confessor, 128. 
Alemanni, 253. 
Alexander, Martyr, 129. 
Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, 192, 

298, 3 6 7> 385> 39 2 - 

his circular epistle, 378. 

seventy letters in one month, 378. 

dies, 402. 
Alexander, of Jerusalem, 203, 247, 302. 

his Library, 302. 

he upholds Origen, 302. 
Alexander, of Constantinople, 406. 
Alexandria, a centre of learning and 
Church life, 194. 

Arian reign of terror in, 427, 428. 

Council at, 445. 
Alexandrine School, 192. 

Episcopate, peculiarity, 192. 
Allegorical interpretation of SS., 84. 
Alogi, 168. 
Alypius, 440, 441. 
Ambrose, of Milan, on the True Cross, 

390. 
made Bishop, 459, 460. 
on a Western Council, 470. 
sketch of life of, 494-504. 



566 



Index. 



Ambrose, of Milan, hostility of Justina 
to, 495. 

and the See of Sirmium, 496. 

his contest with Symmachus, 496. 

contest about the Basilicas, 497- 
500. 

SS. Gervasius and Protasius, 500. 

Theodosius sent out of the Chan- 
cel, 501. 

case of a Synagogue, 501, 502. 



Antidicomarians, 450. 
Antinous deified, 1 13. 
Antioch evangelized, 15, 20. 

Church and School of, 278-286. 

three Councils at, 282. 

schism in, 403, 446. 

schism increased by Damasus,452. 

schism at the Council of Constan- 
tinople, 466, 467. 
Antoninus, Arrius, 1 12. 



massacre at Thessalonica, 502, 503. ] Antoninus Pius, 115. 



penance of Theodosius, 503. 

restoration of Theodosius, 503. 
Ammias, 102. 
Amnion, 478,479. 

so modest, 479. 
Ammonius, pelts Orestes, 518. 

a martyr, 519. 
Ammonius Saccas, 141, 194. 
Amphitheatre, description of, 122, 126. 
Ananias and Sapphira, 12, 96. 
Anastasia, The, 461. 
Anastasius, presbyter, 510. 
Anastasius, Emperor, 549. 

deposes both sides, 549. 

Antiochean Trisagion, 549. 

terrible riots, 549. 

resigns and is restored, 549. 
Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch, 554. 
Anathema, meaning of the word, 522. 
Anatolius, mathematician, 284. 
Anatolius, of Constantinople, 536. 
Anchorets, 249, 292, 293, 479. 
Ancyra, Canon of, 161. 

Council of, 427. 
Andrew, S., 33. 
" Angelic life," 477. 
Anicetus, 155. 
Anomceans, 417. 
Anomoion, 418. 
Antelucani, 268, 326. 
Antichrist, signs of, 213. 



I Antony, Father of Monachism,293-296. 

his visions, 426, 477. 

his departure, 426. 

ignorant of Greek, 543. 
Apelles, 156. 
Apocalypse, Altar-window, 84. 

doubted by Dionysius, 289. 
Apocryphal Gospels, 160, 161. 
Apollinaris, writes against Montanism, 

178. 
Apollinaris, Heretic, 449. 

a friend of S. Athanasius, 449. 
Apollonius, of Tyana, 142, 341. 
Apollonius, martyr, 143. 
Apollonius, writes against Montanism, 

17.8. 
Apollo's Oracle dumb, 341. 
Apollos, 19. 

Apologists, Age of the, 140. 
Apostles, the Twelve, tarry in Jerusa- 
lem, 10. 

separation of the, 16. 

all power given to them, 60. 

Brothers, colleagues, peers, 61. 

the abiding Order, 61. 

one College, 63. 
Apostolate, Second growth of the, 63 

communicated, 67. 
Apostolical Canons, 161. 
Apostolical Constitutions, 75« 
Apostolics, 162. 



Index. 



567 



Apotactites, 162. 

Appeal to nearest Bishops, 263. 

Apuleius, 226. 

Aquarians, 162. 

Aquileia, Council at, 470. 

separated from Rome, 554. 
Arabia, 301. 
Archimandrite, 478. 
Archons, 154. 
Arian Court Party, 411. 
Arianism, an alien mind, 373. 

Platonic, 374. 

its tendency Heathen, 375. 

sacred Virgins teach it, 377. 

five divisions of its History, 412. 
Ariminum, Council of, 426, 427, 429, 

43°- 
general lapse from the Faith, 429. 
retreat in two directions, 429. 
Aristotelian method, 284. 
Arius, excommunicated, 297, 298. 

Peter, martyr, warns the Church 

against him, 297. 
absolved, and set over the Bau- 

calis, 298. 
not elected Bishop, 298. 
his Doctrine, 367, 368. 
cautious statements, 369. 
logic, 369. 

appeal to Scripture, 371. 
higher and lower sense, 371? 37 2 - 
personal description of, 373. 
his character, 374. 
his training, 374, 375. 
condemned in Synod, 377. 
his Thalia and hymns, 379. 
boasting and rioting, 381. 
condemned and exiled, 389. 
recalled and in favor, 402. 
repelled from Communion, 403. 
received at Jerusalem, 405. 
his Triumph, 406. 



Arius, his sudden Death, 407. 

effect on the people, 407. 
Aries, Council of, 275, 308. 
Armenia, 304. 

persecution forced there, 349. 
Arnobius, 211, 273. 
Arsinoe, 478. 
Artemas, 283. 
Artemon, 168, 169. 
Artotyrites, 215. 

Arts, the, not favored by early Chris- 
tians, 330. 
Asceticism, 96, 128. 

perils of, 480. 

strange forms of\ 534* 
Asclepas, of Gaza, 389, 403. 
Asia, 304. 

Mother of Heretics and Heresies, 

304, 3°5- 

extent and fortunes of, 305. 
Athanasius, Life of S. Antony, 293. 

charitable in interpretation, 370. 

his early life and character, 376, 

boy-baptism, 377. 

at Nicaea, 385-389. 

Bishop of Alexandria, 402. 

repels Arius, 403. 

false charges against him, 404. 

charges disproved at Tyre, 404. 

condemned and deposed at Jeru- 
salem, 405. 

confronts the Emperor, 405. 

new charges, 406. 

banished to Gaul, 406. 

on the death of Arius, 407. 

on Persecution, 412. 

returns from exile, 418. 

driven out again, 419. 

pleads before Constans, 419. 

acquitted at Sardica, 420. 

restored in Triumph, 420. 

hypocrisy of Constantius, 421. 



568 



Index. 



Atlmnasius, seizure attempted in 
Church, 424. 
escape and adventures, 425, 426. 
among the Monks, 426, 427. 
returns to his See, 436. 
driven out by Julian, 437. 
returns, 445. 

driven out by Valens, 448. 
dies, 459. 
Frumentius consecrated by him, 

474- 
Athenagoras, Apologist, 140, 195. 
Athenodorus, 205. 
Attalus, Martyr, 129. 
Audians, 450. 
Audientes, 238. 
Augustine, 211, 222. 
Aurelian, refers Antioch case to Rome, 

266. 
growth of the Church, 309. 
Auxentius, Arian, of Milan, 446. 



Babylas, of Antioch, 247, 279. 

removal of remains, 437. 
Baptism, 93. 

among the Elxaites, 148. 

divesting of clothes for, 148. 

two Baptisms among the Gnostics, 
151. 

by Heretics, invalid at Carthage, 
212. 

opposite view at Rome, 261. 

three views, 261. 

Stephen excommunicates, 262. 

Cyprian disregards it, 263. 

question settled at Nicaea, 263. 

in Jail, 214. 

additional ceremonies, 327. 

superstitious delay of, 409. 
Barabbas, 35. 
Baradai, Jacob, 546. 



Bar Cochba, 46. 

Bardesanes, 140, 1 55. 

Barnabas, S., 15, 17, 19, 20, 30, 62. 

Epistle of, 85, 160. 
Baronius, makes up History, 381. 
Barsumas, at Robber Council, 546. 

returns in fury from Chalcedou 
546. 
Bartholomew, S., 34, 195, 301. 
Basil, of Ancyra, 417, 427. 
Basil the Great, 432, 451, 454,457- 

and Julian, 454. 

not elected Bishop, 455. 

retreats to his Monastery, 455. 

his friend Nazianzen, 455, 458. 

country Missions, 456. 

made Bishop, 456. 

relieves distresses, 456. 

persecuted by Valens, 457. 

trials from the Brethren, 457. 

supported by Athanasius, 458. 

decencies of the Altar, 457. 

plagued by Western pride, 458. 

dies, 460. 

makes Monks country Mission- 
aries, 482. 
Basilides, Heretic, 154. 
Basilides, Martyr, 200. 
Basilides, of Leon, 263. 
Baucalis, 308, 368. 
Beards, 439. 
Belisarius, 552. 
Beryllus, 170, 204. 
Bilson's Perpetual Divine Government^ 

61, 62. 
Bishops, Successors of the Apostles, 71. 
their Powers, 71. 

twofold character, 75. 

precedence regulated by Sees, 75, 

merchants, usurers, sharpers, 228. 

spiritual change in, 229. 

equality of, 262. 



Index, 



569 



Bishops, relations of, 263. 
why numerous, 263. 
a guard upon one another, 266. 
only one in a city, 267. 
number of, in Africa, 300. 
number of Donatist Bishops, 300. 
number in Syria, 304. 
" at Nicsea, 383. 
" at 1st Constantinople, 464. 
" at Ephesus, 524. 
" at Chalcedon, 536. 
" at 2d Constantinople, 553. 
" at 3d Constantinople, 558. 
Bithynia, 305. 

Blameless daily life of Christians, 329. 
Blandina, Martyr, 129. 
Blastus, 185, 187. 
Blesilla, 453. 
Blind man, not to be made Bishop, 

199. 
Bordeaux Pilgrim, on the True Cross, 

400. 
Botrus, 274. 

Britain, evangelized, 308. 
Bunsen on S. Ignatius, 108. 
" Butcher " Julian, 439. 
But ho s, 149. 



Caecilianus, of Carthage, 274, 383. 
Csesarea, 18. 

Csesarea, of Cappadocia, expunged 
from list of cities, 436, 454. 

has fifty suffragan Sees, 454. 
Caiaphas ejected, 15. 
Cainites, 154. 
Caius, 189, 190. 
Callistians, 191. 
Callistus, 147, 169, 191, 226. 

sketch of his Life and Episcopate, 
257, 258. 
Calumnies of the Heathen, 328. 



Calumnies, conspiracy, stupra, carica- 
tures, 329. 
Candidianus, 353. 
Candidianus, Imperial Commissioner, 

524. 
Captives redeemed, 253, ^y^. 
Cardinales Episcopi, 190. 
Caritina, 138. 
Carito, 138. 
Carpocratians, 113. 
Carponas, 376. 
Carthage, a See, 211, 224. 

Councils of, 211, 262. 

disputed succession, 274. 
Catacombs, 269, 270, 331. 
Catechetical School, 195. 
Catechumen, three years' probation^ 18. 
Cathari, 390. 

Catholicism the State Religion, 472. 
Cato, whited sepulchre, 332. 
Celestine, of Rome, and Nestorius, 520. 

order of events, 520. 
Celeusius, 274. 
Celsus, 141. 

ridicules Christianity, 313. 
Cemeteries, vigils in, 328. 
Cenobium, 478. 
Centuries, First three, 299. 
Cerdo, 155. 
Cerinthus, 53, 90. 
Cestius Gallus, 37. 
Chalcedon, General Council of, 535. 

description of the opening of, 536. 

Dioscorus and colleagues con- 
demned, 537. 

Eutyches condemned, 538. 

definitions of the Faith, 538. 

Leo's letter examined, 538. 

and approved on its merits, 538. 

case of the Egyptian Bishops, 539, 

Theodoret submits, 540. 

XXVIII. Canons, 541. 



5/0 



Index. 



Ckalcedon, The twenty-eighth Canon, 

54i. 
general falling away, 545. 
authority of the Council restored, 

55o. 

Chalkenteros, 198. 
Chapters, the Three, 553. 

condemned by the East, 552. 

the West hesitates, 552, 553. 

Vigilius at last anathematizes, 553. 

Fifth General Council, 553. 

the Chapters condemned, 553. 

disputes and schisms worse than 
before, 553. 
Charismata, 65. 

their purpose, 66. 

prophecy in the camp, 66. 

temporary, 316. 
Charities, Christian, 332. 
Children not desired, 325. 

heathen society too dangerous to 
them, 325. 
Chiliast doctrine, 159, 166, 191, 288. 
Choir of women, 280. 
Chosroes, 554. 
Christ an ^Eon, 90. 

alone who pardons, 239. 
Christians, good conduct of, 105. 
Chrysanthius, 435. 
Chrysostom, S., 509, 518, 519. 
Church, The, the Pillar and Ground of 
the Truth, 77. 

provision against Error, 91. 

order and liberty together, 91. 

many stand-points harmonized, 92. 

a Witness, 179. 

led into the wilderness, 182. 

never fought, resisted, or rebelled, 
310. 

assemblies devotional, social, char- 
itable, business, 326. 

rites and worship, 326, 327. 



Church, the refuge of Liberty, 411. 

a Witness against Persecution, 412. 

deprived of revenue and privilege 
by Julian, 435. 

privileges and honors under Theo- 
dosius, 490. 

restrained by law, 492. 

independence sacrificed, 492. 

softens Roman law, 493. 
Church and State, 398, 411, 489. 
Churches, the Age of, 300. 
Circumcellions, 277, 360, 444. 
Circumcision, Question of, 320. 
Circus, horrible to Christians, 122. 
Claudius, 309. 

Claudius Apollinaris, Apologist, 140. 
Clement, of Rome, 50, 51, 102, 255. 

on Episcopacy, 73. 
Clement, of Alexandria, 195-198. 
Clement II., 291. 
Clementines, The, 147, 257. 
Cleomenes, 169. 

Clergy, not to be Executors or Guar- 
dians, 233. 

the special object of Valerian's 
persecution, 264. 
Cletus, 255. 
Collucianists, 377. 
Colluthus, 376, 381. 
Collyridians, 450. 
Coming of the Lord expected, 245, 

246. 
Commodus, 143. 
Communion of Saints, 328. 
Conference of sects, 471. 

Babel of angry tongues, 471. 
Confession, Private, abolished at Con- 
stantinople, 468. 
Confessors, of Lyons, their good sense, 
130. 

their Epistle, 130. 

insolent, 226, 227, 237. 



Index. 



571 



Confessors, third power in the Church, 
23 r > 237. 
tortured, 237. 
Conservatism in Oriental Heresies, 

546. 
Consist ent es , 238. 
Constans, 413. 

friendly to Orthodoxy, 419. 

executes decrees of Sardica, 420. 

dies, 421. 
Constantia, 379, 395. 
Constantine does not persecute, 347. 

receives Maximian, 351. 

punishes his treasons, 351. 

defeats Maxentius, 352. 

takes the Christian side, 354. 

not himself a Christian, 355. 

his Vision, 355, 356. 

the Labarum, 356. 

conquers Licinius, 362. 

sole Emperor, 362. 

gives God the glory, 362. 

his faith intellectual, 363. 

his trials and end, 364. 

the type of a new Age, 364. 

hears Arian side first, 379. 

writes to Arius and Alexander, 
380. 

sends Hosius to Alexandria, 380. 

changes to the Orthodox side, 381. 

sharp letter to Arius, 381. 

at Nicsea, 386. 

shields the Bishops, 387. 

closes the Council, 391. 

celebrates his Vicennalia, 392. 

warns against long sermons, 393. 

" Bishop of the outside," 393. 

cold reception in Rome, 394. 

domestic tragedies, 395, 396. 

remorse, 396. 

building of New Rome, 396. 

reconstruction of the Empire, 397. 



Constantine, treaty with Persia, 397. 

faults, 398. 

prepares for Death, 408. 

rebukes flattery, 408. 

is baptized and dies, 409, 410. 

reigns after Death, 410. 
Constantine II., 413. 
Constantine Pogonatus, orthodox, 558. 

calls the Sixth General Council, 
558. 

Constantinople, First General Council 
of, 464-471. 

first business, 464. 

Maximus condemned, 466. 

Gregory enthroned, 466. 

schism in Antioeh, 466. 

new Bishop, Flavian, 467. 

Gregory is opposed, 467. 

he resigns in disgust, 468. 

Nectarius elected, 468. 

the Creed completed, 468. 

heresies condemned, 468. 

four Canons, 469. 

second rank to New Rome, 469. 

Synodical Epistle, 469. 

the West dissatisfied, 469. 

but finally approves, 470. 
Constantinople, another council at, 

condemns Eutyches, 529, 530. 
Constantinople, Second General Coun- 
cil of, 553. 

ignores the Constitution of Vigi- 
lius, 553. 

condemns Theodoras of Mopsu- 
estia and the Three Chapters, 

553- 

Vigilius at last concurs, 553. 
Origenians condemned, 553. 
schisms and disputes worse than 
before, 553. 
Constantinople, Third General Counci/ 
of, 558. 



572 



Index. 



Constantinople, attempted miracle fails, 
558. 

Two Wills, Two Operations, 558 

Honorius and others anathema 
tized, 558. 

attempt to condemn the Sixth 
Council, 559. 
Constantius, 413. 

receives Athanasius as a peer, 420. 

assures Athanasius of favor, 421. 

is baptized and dies, 430. 
Constantius Chlorus, Caesar, 339. 

destroys only the buildings, not 
the Christians, 344. 

Emperor, 346. 

divorces Helena, 347. 

dies, 347. 
" Consubstantial," 173. 

at Antioch, 283. 

at Nicoea, 284. 

used by Dionysius, 291. 

objections to the word, 388, 389. 

the use of it restored, 430. 

honest misunderstanding possible, 

43°- 

favored by Gratian and Theodo- 
sius, 462. 
Corinth, schismatic tendency, 88. 
Cornelius, of Rome, 241, 253. 
Corybantic frenzy, 163. 
Council of Jerusalem, 22. 

not enforced, 96. 
Council General, Idea of, 382. 
Creed, The, 82. 

Baptismal, 83. 

of Nicsea, 393, 447, 524. 
restored, 443, 445. 

of Arius, 402. 

of Golden Church, Antioch, 415, 
429. 

five Arian Creeds, 415. 

of Sirmium, 415. 



Creed of Seleucia, 415, 429. 

eighteen in all, 415. 

dated, 415, 429. 

evasive, 416. 

of Ariminum, 429, 447, 474. 

of Constantinople in full, 468, 469. 
Crescens, 141. 
Crispus, death of, 395. 
Cross, sign of the, 327. 

Invention of the True, 400. 
Crown, Question of the, 218. 
Cruelties of the Heathen, 212. 

of Christian persecutors not to be 
compared to those of the Hea- 
then, 343, 344. 
Cucusus, 421. 
Cynic, Martyr, 116. 
Cyprian, S., 211, 222. 

on Tradition, 82. 

his life, labors, and Martyrdom, 
224-243. 

his appeals, 252. 

grants indulgence, 253. 

compromise with Cornelius, 260. 

letter to Stephen, 262. 

rebukes Stephen about Spanish 
Bishops, 263, 264. 

martyred, 265. 
Cyril, of Jerusalem, on the True Cross, 

400. 

sound in the Faith, 417, 428. 
Cyril, of Alexandria, 511. 

Paschal Epistle, 511. 

sketch of his life, 514. 

encroaches on the civil power, 5 14. 

persecutes the sects, 515. 

quarrels with Orestes, 515. 

massacre of Christians, 515. 

expulsion of Jews, 516. 

proffer of peace refused, 517. 

riot of the Monks, 517. 

murder of Hypatia, 517, 518. 



Index. 



573 



Cyril, fourteen years of quiet, 518. 
his character, 519. 
S. Isidore, his monitor, 519. 
correspondence with Nestorius, 

520, 521. 
the twelve Anathemas, 522. 
at Ephesus, 523. 
accused of haste, 524. 
returns triumphant, 525. 
reconciled with John, of Antioch, 

525- 
fails to procure condemnation of 
Theodore of Mopsuestia, 529. 



Damasus, of Rome, 452, 453. 

massacres at his election, 452. 

on Western Council, 470. 

adds to power of Roman See, 
472. 

dies, 472. 
Daphne, Grove of, 437. 
Deacons, the Seven, 12, 79. 

seven, of Rome, 271. 
Deaconesses, 65. 

tortured, 104. 
Dead, Prayer for the, 215, 233, 326. 

oblations for the, 326. 

commemorated in the diptychs, 
326. 

burial of the, 333. 
Deaf man, not to be made a Bishop, 

199. 
Decian persecution, 244-254. 

a great crisis, 244. 
Decretal epistle, The first, 472. 
Dedication, Synod of the, 415. 
Delta, malarious, of controversy, 410. 
Demetrianus, 279. 
Demetrius, of Alexandria, 192, 194, 

202-204. 
Demiurgus, 149, 150. 



Demoniacal possession, Tertullian's 

challenge, 317. 
Demophilus, of Constantinople, 460. 
Development, 80, 164, 165, 322. 
Devil, The, might be pardoned, 487. 
Dialectics, Age of, 176. 
Didymus, 442. 
Dinocrates, 215. 
Dioceses, number of, in Asia Minor, 

305- 
number of, in Achaia, 306. 

number of, in Italy, 307. 
Diocletian, 158, 309, 339. 

Jovius, persecutes, 340. 

his decree, 342. 

decree torn down, 342. 

his palace fired, 342. 

probably by Galerius, 343. 

horrible cruelties, 343. 

no excuse for them, 343. 

thousands slain, 344, 345. 

trophies erected, 345. 

abdicates, 345. 

at Salona, 352. 

fate of his wife and daughter, 353. 

his end, 353, 354. 
Diognetus, Epistle to, 138. 
Dionysius the Great, of Alexandria, 
204, 205, 249, 265, 281. 

sketch of his career, 286-291. 

his unsound language explained, 
290. 

explanation saves him, 322. 
Dionysius, of Rome, 265. 
Dionysius, of Corinth, 306. 

opposes the Encratites, 306. 

his writings interpolated, 306. 
Dionysius, of Paris, 308. 
Dionysius, of Milan, 422. 
Dioscorians, 547. 
Dioscorus, of Alexandria, 529. 

quarrel with Theodoret, 529. 



574 



Index. 



Dioscorus, supports Eutyches, 530. 

sanctimonious, 530. 

tyrannical, scandalous, 531. 

presides at Robber Council, 531. 

destroys its records, 531. 

his mistaken calculation, 532. 

corrupting the Monks, 532. 

on trial at Chalcedon, 537. 

condemned and contumacious, 538. 

banished and dies, 539. 
Diptychs, 215, 233, 548, 549. 

S. Chrysostom's name in, 519. 
Discipline, in the Apostolic Church, 96. 

decline of, 219. 

restored, 243. 

lenient in Rome, 259. 

generally rigid, 318. 

Tertullian appeals to it, 318. 
Dispersion, Jews of the, 8. 

carried the Gospel with them, 9. 

of the Disciples, 14. 
Ditheists, 258. 
Docetce, 86, 547. 

Dollinger, mistranslates S. Ignatius, 
254, 255. 

on the Primacy, 322. 
Domestic life, Heathen, servitude of, 

226. 
Duminicum Aureum, Council of the, 

415- 
Domitian, 52, 59, 103. 
Domitilla, 59. 

Domnus, of Antioch, 266, 283. 
Donatists, 274. 

appeal to Constantine, 275, 360. 

condemned thrice, 275. 

uncontrollable frenzy, 277. 

turbulent, 444. 

repressed by force, 444. 

they provoke persecution, 444. 

restored by Julian, 445. 

their violence, 445. 



Donatus, 275. 

Dorotheus, of Antioch, 284. 

Dorotheus, a Bishop, opposes " Theo- 

tokos," 510. 
Dositheus, 87. 
Dry diet, needs love, 480. 
Dualism, 149, 150. 
Ducenarius, 280. 



Easter, two traditions, 121, 187, 380. 

Eastern Bishops, united, 283. 

Ebionites, 45, 90. 

Ecclesia, 6. 

Eclectic, Christian, 197. 

" Economy," The, 198. 

Ectasis, 170. 

Ecthesis, of Heraclius, 556. 

twofold Operation, open question, 
556. 

rejected at Rome, 556. 
Eculeus, 332. 
Edessa, 304. 

Arians of, 436. 
Egyptian Church, 286-298, 301. 
Elagabalus, 145. 
Election of Bishops, etc., 69. 
Eleusinian Mysteries, 1 14, 432. 
Eleutherus, 130, 184, 308. 
Eliberis, Council of, 276. 

its Novatian spirit, 276. 
Elxaites, 147, 260. 
Elymas, 20. 

Emanations, in the Nicene Creed, 370. 
Enceladus, 462. 
Encrateia, 275. 
Encratites, 161, 228. 
Encroachments of the State, 492. 

of the Church, 493. 
Enthusiasm, sensuous, 534, 535. 
Ephesus, General Council at, 523. 

waiting for John of Antioch, 523. 






Index. 



575 



Ephesus, Nestorius condemned, 524, 

Rival Councils, 524. 

the Court interferes, 524. 

triumph of Cyril, 525. 

Robber Council of [see Latroci- 
niuni). 
Epigonus, 169. 
Epinoia, 87. 

Epiphanius, on Heresies, 451. 
Episcopate, need of it, 70. 

its oversight, 70. 

self-perpetuating, 72. 

at Alexandria, peculiar, 1 92. 

collegiate, 320, 321. 

diocesan, 320, 321. 

synodical, 321. 

all Bishops brothers, 321. 

mutually accountable, 322. 

universal, 323. 

the Balance-wheel, 324. 
" Episcopate from without," 492. 
Epistles, The Catholic, 84. 
Epochs of human history, as of rocks, 

299. 
Eternity of matter, 173. 
Eucharist, 93. 

daily, 326. 

celebration, 327. 
Eudaemon, of Smyrna, 247. 
Eudocia, Pilgrimage, 534. 

strange forms of Asceticism, 534. 

her munificence, 534. 

retires to monastic life, 534. 
Eudoxians, 418. 
Eudoxius, 418, 430, 460. 

and Ulfilas, 474. 
Euelpistus, 138. 
Eugubium, 307. 
Eunomians, 418, 449, 460. 
Eunomius, 418. 

refused a hearing by TlieodDsius, 
464. 



Eunuchs, 199. 

of the Palace, 414.' 
Euphemia, S., 536. 
Eusebian faction, Prelates of, 414, 
Eusebius, of Caesarea, partial to Origen 
203. 

on the rebuilding of the Churches, 

357, 358- 
his character as a Historian, 357, 

358. 

too eulogistic, 363, 364. 

favors Arius, 378. 

suggests the Creed at Nicsea, ^S8. 

life of Constantine, 408. 
Eusebius, of Alexandria, 284. 
Eusebius, of Nicomedia, 377, 385. 

intrigues against Constantine, 40 1. 

exiled and recalled, 402. 

head of the Court party, 414. 

roving commission, 414. 
Eusebius the Chamberlain, eunuch,4i4. 
Eusebius, of Vercelhe, 422, 445, 446. 
Eusebius, of Caesarea in Cappadocia, 

455- 

Eusebius, of Dorylaeum, 513. 

accuses Nestorius, 513. 

accuses Eutyches, 529. 

accuses Dioscorus, 537. 

Eusebius, calls Egyptian Bishops 

" liars," 539. 
Eustathius, of Antioch, 392. 

deposed on false charges, 403. 

adhered to by the Orthodox, 403. 
Eustochium, 453. 
Eutropius, 403. 
Eutyches, accused of error, 529. 

asserts One Nature in Christ, 529. 

is condemned, 530. 

new Council of Ephesus, 530. 

" Robber Council," 531. 

acquitted, 531. 

condemned at Chalcedon, 538. 



576 



Index. 



Eutychianism, three forms, 530. 

among the Armenians, 537. 
Eutychius, 192. 
Euzoius, Arian, 389, 402. 

made Bishop of Antioch, 430. 
Evagrius, the Historian, 554. 
Exomologesis, 238. 
Exorcism, 316, 317. 

fails, 177. 

is successful, 189. 



Fabianus, of Rome, 235. 
Fabiola, 453. 
Fabius, of Antioch, 279. 
Faith, Hope, and Charity, martyred, 
114. 

superior to Science, 317. 

li\ ing and triumphant, 337. 

The, kept, 559. 
False theories in the Church, 370. 
Families broken up by Christianity, 324. 
Fanaticism abounding, 113. 
Fasting, 95, 165. 
Fausta, slain, 396, 
Faustinus, of Lyons, 262. 
Feasts, 95. 
Felicissimus, 240. 
Felicitas, Martyr, 214-217. 
Felix, of Aptunga, Traditor, 274. 
Felix, Arian intruder in Rome, 423, 

424. 
Felix II., of Rome, rejects the Henoti- 
con, 548. 

schism between East and West, 
548. 
Female ministers, 166. 
Fictions, religious, 160. 
Filth, culture of, 482. 
Firmilianus, 205, 281, 282. 
Fish, the mystic, explained, 331. 
Flavian, of Antioch, 467. 



Flavian, of Constantinople, condemns 
Eutyches, 530. 
murdered at Epliesus, 431, 537. 
Florinus, 185. 
Flowers at funerals, 331. 
For tuna, the goddess, 356. 
Fortunatus, 240. 
Fossores, 331. 

Four Words of the Four Councils, 538, 
Frenzy, Diabolical, in Egypt, 545. 
Fronto, 141. 

Frontonius, recluse, 293. 
Frumentius, Apostle of Abyssinia, 474. 



Galerius, Csesar, 339. 

soul of the Tenth Persecution, 
339-34i> etc. 

Emperor, 346. 

eaten of worms, 348. 

dying edict of toleration, 348. 
Gallienus, 309. 
Gallus, 413, 437. 
Gaul, evangelized from the East, 307. 

mission of Seven Bishops, 307. 
Gelasius, on the True Cross, 400. 
Geminius, Victor, 233. 
Generation, The Second, critical, 56. 
Genujiectentes, 238. 
George, the Cappadocian, 427. 

installed by soldiers, 427. 

torn in pieces by the mob, 436. 
German critics, on types of doctrine, 78, 
Gessius Florus, 37. 

Gibbon, his five causes of Church 
growth, 311. 

all fallacious, 311. 

another fallacy, 31 1. 

his real service to the Truth, 311, 
312. 

unfairness as to magic, 317. 

fair as to numbers, 319. 



Index. 



577 



Gibbon, unfair to Lactantius, 339. 

sneers at intemperate zeal, 342. 

on Church Historians, 35b. 

on death of Arius, 407. 

on death of Julian, 442. 

sneers at the controversies of 
Faith, 560. 
Gieseler, on Episcopacy, 61. 
Gifts, at Pentecost, 9. 

special, 65. 

special, overvalued, 89. 
Gladiator shows prohibited in New 

Rome, 491. 
Gnosis, 86, 146. 

salvation by Gnosis, 150. 

as a philosophy, 151. 

a Christian, 197, 198. 
Gnostics, not Martyrs, 115. 

their tenets, 147-153. 

their morals, 150. 

cultus, 151. 
Gnostic sects, 153-157. 
Gospel, The, 76. 
Gospels, the Four, 80, S^, 84. 
Goths, terrible ravages of, 253. 

on the Danube, evangelized, 474. 
Graffiti, of Pompeii, 329. 
Gratian, emperor, 460. 
Grazers, 479. 

Greek origin of the Gallic Church, 
126. 

the leading champions of Chris- 
tianity, 183. 

Liturgy at Rome, 271. 
Gregory Thaumaturgus, 201, 205. 

his miracles and success, 248, 249. 

his orthodoxy unimpeached, 248. 
Gregory, the Illuminator, 304. 
Gregory, Arian Bishop of Alexandria, 

419. 
Gregory Nazianzen, 432. 

his Father, 456. 

25 



Gregory Nazianzen, on natural scenery, 

455- 
made Bishop of Sasima, 458. 
retires to Nazianzus, 459. 
thence to Seleucia, 459. 
goes to Constantinople, 460. 
the Anastasia, 461. 
the " Theologian," 461. 
had not the gift of miracles, 461. 
revival of Orthodoxy, 462. 
Enceladus, 462. 
sketch of Maximus the Cynic, 

464-466. 
enthroned, and President of the 

Council of Constantinople, 466. 
Egyptian movement against him, 

467. 
he resigns, 467. 
his disgust at Councils, 467. 
tender adieu to Constantinople, 

470. 
recluse life, poetry,. silence, 471. 
Growth, silent, 101, 309, 310. 
like a rising tide, ill. 



Hadrian, 46, ill. 

thinks to place Christ among the 
gods, 114. 
Hallowing all relations of life, 97. 
Haruspices, consulted by Theodosius, 

491. 
Hase, on Episcopacy, 61, 73. 
Heathen, fanatical, 113. 

foulness, 325. 

at Nicsea, 386. 

philosopher converted, 386. 

abuses corrected, 490. 

sacrifices allowed, 491. 

forbidden, 491. 

temples destroyed, 491, 504. 

appropriated to State uses, 505. 



573 



Index. 



Heathen, struggle with Christianity long 

continued, 505. 
Heathenism exhausted, 274. 
Hebdomad, 154. 
Hebrews, Epistle to the, 85. 
Helen, the " lost sheep," 87. 
Helena, S., 347. 

partial to Crispus, 395. 

pilgrimage, 399. 

churches built, 399. 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 
399, 400. 

invention of the True Cross, 400. 

dies, 400, 401. 
Hellanicus, exile in Rome, 419. 
Henoticon, of Zeno, 548. 

does not produce Unity, 548. 

the Egyptians divided, 548. 

the Catholics divided, 548. 

Rome refuses communion, 548. 
Heraclas, 205. 
Heracleon, 180. 
Heraclius, 554. 

restores the True Cross, 554. 

the " little horn" appears, 554. 

a town taken by Saracens, 554. 

whole Provinces lost, 555. 

affirms but One Will in Christ, 

555- 
Herais, 201. 

Heresies, three drifts, spiritual, rational, 
sensuous, 77. 

in the Apostolic age, 85. 

Gnostic, 86. 

sensuous, 88. 

Judaic, 89. 

divided and disintegrated, 176. 
Hermas, " Shepherd" of, 85, 160. 
Hermias, Apologist, 140. 
Hermogenes, 156. 
Herod Agrippa, 15, 17. 
Herod the Great, 348. 



Herodotus, 298. 

Hexapla, 202. 

Hierax, Martyr, 138. 

Hierax, tortured, 515. 

Hierocles, 341. 

Hilarian, Pro-consul, 216. 

Hilary, of Poitiers, 422, 427, 430. 

the light of Gaul, 446. 
Hippolytus, on Simon Magus, 87, 108. 

on the Elxaites, 147. 

his Philoscphoiimena, 189— 192. 

on Callistus, 226. 

quarrel with Zephyrinus and Cal- 
listus, 257, 258. 
History, Type of Church, 299. 
Home idea not strong, 324. 

reasons for this, 324-326. 
Homer, Good gifts come of God, 298. 
Homceans, 417. 

their triumph, 429. 
Homoiousion, 416, 447. 
Homoousion (see Consubstantial). 
Honorius, Bishop of Rome, 556. 

approves the Monothelite heresy, 
556. 

is anathematized as a heretic, 558. 

Papal infallibility then unknown, 
558. 

see Appendix, 561. 
Hosius, of Cordova, 276, 380, 382, 

383, 392. 

praised by both sides, 380. 

favors the Orthodox, 381. 

at Nicaea, 389. 

not a legate of Rome, 392. 

signs first at Nic?ea, 392. 

spurious correspondence, 393. 

signs the Creed of Sirmium, 416. 

tortured into Arianism, 424. 
Hospital for lepers, 457. 
Hospitality, Early Christian, 328 
Hours of prayer, 95. 



Index, 



579 



Humanitarianism, 281. 
Hydroparastatce, 162. 
Hymenaeus, of Jerusalem, 281, 303. 
Hymns, 280. 

by S. Ambrose, 500. 
Hypatia, sketch of, 517. 

unsexes herself rev oltingly, 517. 

cruelly murdered, 518. 
Hypostasis, difficulties as to meaning, 

45°- 

Tritheist or Sabellian, 450. 

alienates East and West, 450 

Cyril's doctrine, 522. 
Hypostatic Union, 522. 
Hypotyposes, 197. 
Hypsisterian sect, 456. 



Iberians, converted, 473. 

their king's prayer for light, 473. 
Iconium, Council of, 282. 
Ignatius, the third Witness of Episco- 
pacy, 73, 102. 

brought before Trajan, 106. 

his journey to Rome, 107. 

his sallies, 108. 

his Martyrdom, 108. 

his Relics and Epistles, 108, 109. 

his Witness to Doctrine and Dis- 
cipline, no. 

"Nothing without the Bishop." 
no. 

what he says of the Roman 
Church, 254, 255. 
Iliad, The, 298. 
Incarnation, The, 532. 

aversion to the Mystery, 547. 
Income of the Early Church, 333. 
IncorrupticolcE, 547. 

Justinian a heretic at last, 554. 
India, 301. 

interior of, 474. 



Individualism, the root of Monachism, 
249. 

George Miiller, 294. 
Indulgences, 243, 319. 
Infant Baptism, objected to, 225. 

practised, 325. 

communion, 325. 
Informers, Edict against, 1 15. 
In Pace, 271. 
Inspiration, Orthodox and Montanist. 

166, 167. 
Intellect, the boast of the Arians, 378. 
Intercommunion, 321. 
Irenseus, 85, 130, 141. 

ridicules theological obstetricians, 

i7i. 

and his disciples, 1 83-192. 
Isidore, monk, perfectionist, 479. 
Isidore, of Pelusium, 519. 

rebukes Cyril, 519, 525. 

meaning of these rebukes, 519- 
" Israels," Donatist war-clubs, 444. 
Istrian Bishops, separated from Rome 

for a century and a half, 554. 
Italy, 306, 307. 



James, S., the Greater, 17, 53. 

preached in Spain, 307. 
James, S., Bishop of Jerusalem, 13, 

33, 36, 39-43. 5 8 > 6 4- 
precedence over Peter and John, 

75- 

his Epistle, 79. 

his chair, 301. 
James, of Nisibis, 384, 443. 
Jerome, S., Ad Evangelum, 71, 192. 

on Bishops of Alexandria, 192. 

and Damascus, 452, 472. 

in Rome, 453. 

asceticism unpopular there, 453. 

leaves Rome, 453. 



5 8o 



Index, 



Jerome, retires to Palestine, 482. 
Jerusalem, the starting-point of the 
Church, 11, 301. 

precedence over Rome and An- 
tioch, 75, 256. 

Council of, 22. 

first siege of, 38. 

second siege of, 44. 

second destruction, 46. 

Arian Council of, 401, 405. 

attempt to rebuild Temole of, 440, 
441. 
Jerusalem, the New, 160. 
JESUS, Works of, complementary, 3. 

the two fishing scenes, 3. 

a Seed-sower of Principles, 4. 

organizes His Ministry, 4. 

Prophet, Priest, King, 5. 

absolutely, ministerially, deriva- 
tively, 5. 

the Great Forty Days, 6. 

the Ascension, 6. 

the Waiting of the Apostles, 6. 

the Descent of the Paraclete, 7. 

the silence of, 109. 
Jewish Christian sects, 45, 146. 
Joachim and Anna, 58. 
John the Baptist, I. 

the Head of, 400. 
John, S., Apostle, 34. 

survivor of the Apostolic College, 

52. 
removes to Asia, 52. 
at Rome and Patmos, 52. 
his character, 52. 
and Cerinthus, 53. 
reclaims a robber, 53. 
is Anti-Gnostic, 54. 
the " terrible crystal," 54. 
the Apostle of Love, 54. 
his writings and later life, 55- 
" the Presbyter," 55. 



John, S., preserves the Unity of the 
Church, 56. 

the first " Witness " of Episcopacy, 
72, 102. 
John, the Persian, 383. 
John, the Almoner, 542. 
John, of Anticch, friend of Nestorius, 
521. 

prudent advice to Nestorius, 521. 

late at Ephesus, 523, 524. 

rival Council, 524. 

reconciled with Cyril, 325. 
Jovian, 443. 

restores Christianity, 443. 
Jovinian, monk, heretic, 450, 451. 
Judaic Christianity, 40, 41, 45. 

its mission ended, 45. 
Judaizers, 21, 89. 
Judas Iscariot, 155. 
Jude, S., 33. 

Judgments, the six great, 38. 
Julian, of Apamea, 177. 
[ulian, the Apostate, 413, 430. 

his early training, 431-433. 

sole Emperor, 434. 

devotes himself, 434. 

reforms the government, 434. 

pretended toleration, 335. 

persecutes, 435-442. 

ridiculed in Antioch, 437. 

thundering Antiphon, 437. 

cruel measures, 438. 

idolatry restored, 439. 

beards, 439. 

literary efforts, 440. 

attempt to rebuild the Temple, 
440, 441. 

Persian war, and Death, 441, 442. 

prophecies and wonders, 442, 443. 
Julius Africanus, 205. 
Julius, of Rome, 418, 419. 
Justin Martyr, 117. 



Index, 



581 



Justin Martyr, in search of Truth, 

131. 

his teachers, 131. 

meets an Evangelist, 132. 

his life and writings, 132-137. 

his Confession, 137, 138. 

his Martyrdom, 139. 

his Dialogue with Trypho, 313. 
Justin, Emperor, 554. 
Justina, Arian, 472. 

and S. Martin, 486. 
Justinian, Lay-Pope, 550. 

a persecutor, 551. 

public works, 551. 

S. Sophia, 551. 

reform of Roman Law, 552. 

condemns Origen's errors, 552. 

and the Three Chapters, 552. 

calls Fifth General Council, 553 

dies a Heretic at last, 554. 
Justus, of Jerusalem, 44. 

martyred, 106. 
Juvenal, of Jerusalem, 523. 

at the " Robber Council," 531. 

flees after Chalcedon, 545. 

is restored, 545. 



Kata panta homoion, 407,419. 

Kenoma, 149. 

Kingdom of God, Expectation of it, 

2. 
Kiss of peace, 93. 
Ktistolatrce, 537. 



Lab arum, 443. 
Lactantius, 211, 273. 

Dc morte Lersecutorum, 339. 
Lampridius, 114. 
Laodicean Cnnstians, 187. 
Lap-dogs, 219. 



Lapsed, The, 238, 239. 

lenity to them at Alexandria, 287. 
Latrocinium, or Robber Council, 531. 

account of it, at Chalcedon, 531. 

violence and irregularity, 531. 

Bishops mobbed, 531. 

Flavianus dies of his injuries, 531. 

the records destroyed, 531. 

Eutyches cleared, 531. 

proofs, 537, 538. 

Barsumas there, 546. 
Laura, The, 296, 478. 
Laurentius, Roman deacon, 272, 273. 
Law, The, a Pcedagogus, 8. 
Lay influence, 69. 

element in Synods, 180. 
in North Africa, 231. 
in Discipline, 231. 

teaching, 196. 
Laying on of hands, 94. 
Laymen at Nicaea, 386. 
Legates of the Apostles, 70. 
Lent, 165. 

Leo, of Rome, the first against Dios- 
corus, 532. 

his famous letter to Flavianus, 

532. 

not read at the Latrocinium, 532. 

demands a new Council, 532. 

his letter at Chalcedon, 538, 539. 

accepted on its merits, 539. 

he opposes Canon XXVIIL, 541. 
Leo, Emperor, proposes to ignore Chal- 
cedon, 548. 
Leonides, 199. 
Leontius, an Arian, 425. 
Letter, difference of a [ec or en), 546. 
Libanius, 433, 442. 

ridicules the monks, 505. 
Libellatici, 145, 236. 
Libelli pads, 238. 
Liberianus, Martyr, 138. 



582 



Index. 



Liberius, of Rome, 421. 

banished, 423. 

his fall into Heresy, 424. 

signs the Sirmium creed, renounces 
Athanasius, and anathematizes 
all who refuse to do likewise, 
424. 

redeems his credit, 430, 446, 447. 
Licinius, 347, 379. 

favors Christianity, 360. 

alliance with Constantine, 360. 

his Dream, 360, 361. 

war with Constantine, 361. 

he persecutes, 361. 

defeat and death, 362. 
Limits of belief, 173. 
Linus, 255. 

Liturgic language in N. T., 95. 
Liturgies, the Four Great, 55, 95. 

understanded of the people, 69. 

conservative, 546. 
Local administration, 323. 
Logos, The, 171, 172. 
Longinus, 280. 
Lord's Day, 327. 

a feast, by law, 490. 
" Lost Sheep," The, 149. 
Lucian, heathen, 141, 328. 
Lucian, Martyr, starved, 239, 285. 

list of heretics, his scholars, 285. 

father of Arianism, 285. 

starved in prison, 285, 286. 

his breast a living altar, 285, 286. 
Lucifer, of Cagliari, 422. 

consecrates Paulinus in Antioch, 
446. 
Luciferians, 446. 
Lucilla, 274. 

kissing a bone, 274. 
Lucius, of Rome, Martyr, 254. 
Lucius, British Prince, 308. 
Lucius, of Hadrianople, 403. 



Lucius, of Hadrianople, an exile, in 

Rome, 419. 
Lucius, Arian, Bishop of Alexandria, 

459- 

Luke, S., with S. Paul, 31, 62. 
Luther, on S. James, 79. 
Lyonnese Martyrs, 125. 



Mabia, Queen of Saracens, 475. 
Macarius, S., Monastery of, 544. 
Macarius, of Jerusalem, 400. 
Macarius, monk, 478. 

homilies of, 480. 
Macarius, of Antioch, Heretic, 558. 
Macedonia, 306. 

Macedonius, Arian Bishop of Constan- 
tinople, 421. 

his butchery of three thousand 
persons, 422. 

tortures and other cruelties, 422. 

denies the Deity of the Holy 
Ghost, 449. 

is deposed, 460. 

thirty adherents at the Council, 
464. 
Macella, 201. 
Magi, persecutors, 473. 
Magic rites punished, 491. 
Magical pretensions, 317. 
Magician, 316. 
Magnentius, 413. 
Majorinus, 275. 

Malchion, of Antioch, 282, 283. 
Mammsea, 201. 
Mandra, 478. 
Mani, 156. 
Manichaeans, 157, 158, 304, 450 

their discipline, 319. 

not tolerated, 460. 
Manumission of slaves, 333. 
Marcella, 453. 



Index. 



533 



Marcellus, of Rome, groom in the Em- 
peror's stables, 357. 
Marcellus, centurion, martyr, 340. 
Marcellus, of Ancyra, 385, 389, 
404. 

deposed, 405. 

in Rome, 419. 

not quite Orthodox, 448. 
Marcia, 143. 

Marcian, Emperor, 535, 536. 
Marcion, 155. 

his offerings rejected, ^3> 
Marcosians, 154, 186. 
Marcus, Bishop of Jerusalem, 46. 
Marcus, heretic, 186. 
Marcus Aurelius, 115, 116, 143. 
Marinus, Martyr, 309. " 
Maris, of Chalcedon, 389. 
Mark, S., in Egypt, 19, 50. 
Mark, John, 32. 
Mark, of Arethusa, tortured by Julian, 

436. 
Maron, John, 559. 
Maronites, submit to Rome, 559. 
Marriage permitted to those in Holy 
Orders, at Rome, 258. 

of the Clergy, 384. 
Marriages, second, 165. 
Married twice or thrice, admitted to 

Holy Orders in Rome, 258. 
Martialis, of Astorga, 263. 
Martianus, of Aries, 262. 
Martin, S., of Tours, 450. 

sketch of, 482. 

he founds monasteries, 483. 

is made Bishop of Tours, 483. 

evangelizes the rural parts, 484. 

his miracles, 484. 

he opposes superstition, 485. 

roots up idolatry, 485. 

builds churches, 485. 

at court, 4S6. 



Martin, S., and the Devil, 487. 

pleads for Priscillianists, 487. 

looks for the " print of the nails," 
488. 
Martin I., Bishop of Rome, anathema- 
tizes Monothelite leaders, 556. 

is seized, brutally treated, and 
banished, 557. 

dies in exile, 557. 
Martyr, 161. 
Martyrdom, inordinate zeal for, 112, 

121. 
Martyrs, number of, 114. 

their tortures, 128. 

their charity, 128. 

era of the, 291. 

and Confessors, insolent, 226, 227. 

military, 250, 

worship of, 315. 

relics of, 315. 
Mary, S., Mother of our Lord, 57. 

confided to S. John, 58. 

reserve of Scripture, 58. 

legends and traditions, 58. 

her Conception and Assumption, 

58, 59- 

Theotokos, 500-503, 512, 517. 
Massacre of Jews, 35, 36. 
Massalians, 450. 
Matthew, S., 34, 194. 
Matthias, S., 7, 34, 62. 
Maturus, martyr, 129. 
Maurice, 454. 
Maxentius, slays Severus, 346. 

a monster of wickedness, 351, 

defeated and slain, 352. 

demoniacal incantations, 356- 
Maximian, emperor, 339. 

Herculiits, 339. 

resigns and resumes, 346. 

retires to Gaul and kills himself, 

351. 



584 



Index. 



Maximian, Bishop of Constantinople, 

525. 
Maximilian, soldier, martyr, 340. 
Maximilla, 164. 
Maximin, the Thracian, 145. 
Maxiniin, Caesar, 346. 

relents, 348. 

persecutes afresh, 349. 

his lusts, 349. 

his reverses and suicide, 350. 

dying edict of toleration, 350. 
Maximus, of Carthage, 242. 
Maximus, of Ephesus, martyr, 247. 
Maximus, of Alexandria, 283, 291. 
Maximus, of Jerusulem, 403. 
Maximus, an Ephesian quack, 432. 
Maximus, the Cynic, 464. 

his hair, etc., 464. 

a devoted admirer of Gregory, 465. 

his plot and enthronement as 
Bishop, 465, 466. 

rejected by all, 466. 

no Bishop, 466. 
Maximus, tyrant of Gaul, etc., 472. 

favorable to Orthodoxy, 472. 

and S. Martin, 486. 

defeated, 501. 
Mediterranean, Belt of the, 300, 308. 
Melchiades, 275. 
Melchites, 543. 
Melchizedekians, 168. 
Meletians, side with Arians, 378. 

decision about them at Nicaea, 390 

alienation of races, 543. 
Meletius, of Lycopolis, deposed, 292. 

makes a schism, 292. 

its rapid spread, 292. 
Meletius, of Antioch, orthodox, 446. 

his kind offer to Paulinus, 452, 467. 

returns from exile, 460. 

presides at opening of Council. 
466, 467. 



Meletius, of Antioch, dies soon after, 

466. 
Melito, Apologist, 140. 
Memnon, of Ephesus, 523. 
Menander, 87. 
Mensurius, 276. 

how he saved the Church books 

> 

276. 
Mercator, Marius, 513. 
Merum matutinitm, 326. 
Mesmeric phenomena, 164. 
Methodius, 206, 304. 
Metropolitan system, 74. 

needed, 241 

no appeal beyond the Province, 
256. 

the opposite of the Papal system, 
322. 
Metropolitans, their rights defined at 

Nicaea, 390, 391. 
Middleton, and the soul, 317. 
Milan, Arian Council of, 422. 

separated from Rome, 554. 
Militant spirit of the Church, 335, 336. 
Military service, objected to, 330. 
Millennium, 159, 165, 184. 
Milman, on Church Historians, 358. 

on Athanasius, 407, 

on Cyril, 520. 
Miltiades, Apologist, 140, 178. 
Ministry, local, 64. 

change from miraculous to ordi- 
nary, 66, 67. 
Minor Orders, 323. 
Minucius Felix, Apologist, 141, 21 1, 

3*3> 

Minucius Fundanus, 115. 

Miracles, 189, 315-318. 

Mission, temporary and permanent, 67. 

given by laying on of hands, 94. 
Missions in the Fourth Century, 472- 

475- 



Index, 



585 



Missions in the Fourth Century, monks 
the missionaries, 476. 

S. Basil leads the movement, 482 
Mithras, 149. 
Mohammedanism, 310. 
Monachism, its rise, 292. 

a missionary power, 476. 

Christian and Heathen, 480. 

dreaded in Africa, 481. 

disliked in the West, 482. 

favored by Athanasius, Jerome, 
Ambrose, Martin, 482. 

ever needing reform, 488. 

Nativism vs. Hellenism, 543, 544. 
Monad, 170. 
Monarchians, 168. 
Monastic maxims, 480. 

life, a Hospital, 481. 
Monkeys, 219. 

Monks, tortured for Amanasius' sake, 
426. 

married, 479. 

as pi - eachers, 481. 

preach in the vernacular, 481. 

persecuted by Valens, 481. 

wild dreams of, 485. 

ridiculed by Libanius, 505. 

loud against Nestorius, 513. 

throw stones at Orestes, 516. 

enraged after Chalcedon, 545. 
Monoimus, 156. 
Monophysite heresy, 541. 

revolt of the Egyptian Church, 542. 

Proterius murdered, 542. 

Melancholy decay of Egyptian 
Church, 542, 543. 

Melchites, 543. 

Hellenism and Nativism, 543. 

Monachism, native, 543. 

liturgies vernacular, 544. 

Monophysite Patriarchs reside in 
the Thebais, 544. 



Monophysite, madness of the people, 

544- 

general falling away, 545. 

heresy spreads in Palestine, 545. 

Nativism strong there too, 545. 

spreads in Syria, 546. 

fossilizes the religion of three 
Councils, 546. 
Monothelite heresy, 555. 

edict of Heraclius, 555. 

nature of the Heresy, 555. 

four patriarchs deceived, 556. 

Honorius a Heretic, 556. 

The Ecthesis, 556. 

The Typus, 556. 

condemned at Rome, 556. 

condemned at Sixth General 
Council, 558. 

attempt to revive the Heresy, 559. 
Montanism, in North Africa, 167. 
Montanists, 130, 140. 

introduce the giving of salaries. 

334- 
Montanus, 162, 164, 167. 
Moon, shouting at the, 504. 
Morals, 96. 
Moses, monk, converts Saracens, 475. 

refuses consecration by the Arian 
Lucius, 475. 
Mosheim, on Episcopacy, 61. 

misinterprets Cyprian, 232. 
Musanus, Apologist, 140. 
Mutilations forbidden, 391. 
Mutual sympathy, 328. 
Mystical sense of Scripture, 201, 202. 



Naassenes, 154. 

Names, significant, no evidence of 

myth, 90. 
Narcissus, of Jerusalem, 302. 

water to replenish lamps, 302. 



25 



# 



586 



Index. 



Narcissus, of Jerusalem, his miracles, 

302. 
leaves and resumes nis See, 302. 
Nativism at the root of Nestorian and 

Monophysite defections, 528, 

544, 546. 
Nazarenes, 45, 89. 
Neander, on Episcopacy, 61, 80. 
on S. James, 79. 
on Origen, 204. 
Nectarius, Bishop of Constantinople, 

468. 
Ne??iesis i 362, 363. 
Neo-Platonism, 141, 153, 194, 279, 

281, 313,374. 
first throned in Julian, 433. 
finally put down under Justinian, 

5°5- 
Nepos, Chiliast, 288. 
Nero, 25, 26, 36. 
Nerva, 103. 
Nestorian and Pelagian heresies con 

nected, 512. 
Nestorianism spreads through the East, 
526, 527. 
its peculiarities, 527. 
an arrested growth, 528. 
Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, 

509- 
zealous against Heretics, 509. 
"the Incendiary," 510. 
the title Theotokos denied, 510. 
replies to Cyril's Paschal Letter, 

512. 
answers Proclus, 513. 
answers John of Antioch, 521. 
twelve counter-anathemas, 522. 
first at Ephesus, 523. 
irreverent speeches, 523. 
condemned and deposed, 524, 525. 
dies miserably in exile, 526. 
New Era, Signs of, 360. .1 



Niczea, Council of, 382-393. 

private grievances disposed o^ 
386, 387. 

conferences, 387. 

discussions and debates, 387 

Arius condemned, 389. 

Paschal question, 390. 

other questions, 390, 391. 

closing session, 391. 

who presided ? 392. 

the Creed, 393. 

spurious Papal sanction, 393. 
Nicolaitanes, 85, 88. 
Nicomedia, 305. 

Church of, destroyed by Diocle- 
tian, 341. 
Nisibis, surrendered to Persia, 443. 
Nitrian mountain, 478. 
Noetus, 169. 

Non-resistance to oppression, 336. 
Nous, 87, 154. 
Novatian, 175, 241. 

advised by Dionysius to resign; 
287. 
Novatianism, 240-243. 

orthodox in Faith, 243, 371. 

condemned at Antioch, 279. 
Novatians, 390. 

their Confession approved, 371. 

persecuted by Cyril, 515. 
Novatus, 240-243. 
Novelties, wholesome dread of, 178. 
Nubia, 301. 

Numbers, as symbols, 247. 
Numerical strength of Christians, 319. 

Gibbon's estimate fair, 319. 



Observances, 95. 
Obstetricians, theological, 1 71. 
Offerings at the Altar, ^^^. 
of Heretics rejected, 333, 



Index. 



537 



Offerings, for the Dead, ^Ta 334* 

for three chief objects, 334. 

spent by Deacons as directed by 
Bishops, 334. 

included all one's property, 334. 
Ogdoad, 154, 186. 
Ophites, 154. 

Optatus, on the Donatists, 444. 
Orders, the Three, 67, 68, 94. 

relation to one another, 68. 

all ha 1 part in the Sacerdotium, 68. 
Orestes, Prefect of Alexandria, 515. 

attacked by Monks, 516. 

intimate with Hypatia, 518. 
Origen, 85. 

converts Berylhis, 170. 

his life and labors, 198—205. 

his errors, 205. 

heretical tendencies, 205. 

is tortured and dies in prison, 253. 

254- 

small in body, 254. 

his disciples, 286. 

against Celsus, 313. 

some of his tenets condemned, 552. 
Origenians, aggrieved, 553. 
Origin of evil, 174. 
Ormuzd, 149, 157. 
Orphans, 332. 
Oxyrynchus, 478. 



Pachomius, monk, 478. 
Pagan zeal dies away, 357. 
Paganism new vamped, 349. 

yet strong in the country parts, 476. 
Palestine, 301, 344, 345. 

martyrs of, 303. 

their wonderful endurance, 303. 

restoration, like a flash of light- 
ning, 303. 
Palladius, Arian, condemned, 495. 



Pambos, and the actress, 479* 

Pamphilus, 205. 

Pantsenus, 195, 301. 

Pantheon, The, 505. 

Paphnutius, 2>^>Z- 

Papias, 103. 

Parables, Notes of the Church, 2. 

the Talents and the Pounds, 2. 

the growing Church, 102. 
Paraclete, 7, 164, 166. 
Parity, ministerial, none, 66. 
Parobolani, 5 18. 
Party names, 219. 

" Spirituals " and " Psychicals," 
220. 
Paschal Question, 187. 

settled at Nicsea, 390. 
Paschal Lamb, 187, 188. 
Paschal Letters, 290, 390. 
Paschasinus, 536. 
Patient continuance, 336. 
Patriarchates, order of, 76. 

three schismatical, 546. 
Patripassians, 169, 190, 191. 
Paul, S., the Benjamite wolf, 15, 27. 

the Apostle, 19, 21. 

his second journey, 23. 

his Epistles, 23. 

at Corinth, 23. 

at Ephesus, 23. 

at Jerusalem, 24. 

at Csesarea, 24. 

at Rome, 24. 

in Spain, Gaul, Britain, 25, 308 

Martyrdom, 26. 

and his company, 30, 31. 
Paul, of Samosata, 171, 266, 322. 

sketch of his career, 279—284. 

revived, 513. 
Paul, Prince of the anchorets, 249. 
Paul, of Constantinople, exile, 419. 

exiled again, and murdered, 421. 



588 



Index. 



Paula, 453. 

Paulinus, of Treves, 422. 

Paulinus, of Antioch, 446. 

rejects the offer of Meletius, 452, 

467. 
aids Damasus in Rome, 472. 
Paulites, 284. 
Peace, season of, 222. 
Pearson, on S. Ignatius, 109. 
Pella, 44. 
Penance, 318. 

of Theodosius, 513. 
Pentecost, 7. 

second, 14. 
Pentecostal Age, 299. 
Pepuza, 165. 

Peregrinus, Cynic martyr, 116. 
Perpetua, martyr, 214-217. 
Persecution, in Jerusalem, 13. 
first general, under Nero, 36. 
second, under Domitian, 56. 
third, under Trajan, 103. 
fourth, under Hadrian, 1 13. 
fifth, under Marcus Aurelius 

117. 
sixth, under Severus, 144. 
seventh, under Maximin, the 

Thracian, 145. 
eighth, under Decius, 235. 
ninth, under Gallus and Valerian, 

253, 264, 290. 
tenth, under Diocletian and Max- 
imian, 273, 338-354. 
its fury in Egypt, 297. 
horrible tortures, 297. 
by the Arians, 418, 421, 422. 
in the West, 422. 
by kindness, 423. 
by Acacians, 430. 
by Valens, 447, 448. 
eighty priests burned at once, 
448. 



Persia, 304. 

Church growth in, 473. 

16,000 martyi-s, 473. 

fresh persecution, 474. 
Persians, ravages by, 253. 
Peter, S., in Samaria, 14. 

receives Cornelius, 16, 18. 

imprisoned, 17. 

his position, the first stone laid, 47. 

his use of the keys, 47. 

Petros and Petra, 47. 

travels to Rome, etc., 48. 

double Episcopates, Jew and Gen- 
tile, 48. 

his pastoral gift, 49, 

his strength and weakness, 49. 

censured by S. Paul, 49. 

his Episcopate in Rome denied, 

49, 50- 

a married man, 50. 
Peter, Martyr, Bishop of Alexandria, 
291, 297. 

he warns against Arius, 297. 
Peter, of Alexandria, exiled, 459. 

returns, 460. 
Peter Mongus, 544. 
Phantasiasts, 547. 
Phariseeism in general, 275. 
Philip, the Deacon, 14. 
Philip, S., Apostle, 34. 
Philip, the Arabian, 145, 201, 235. 
Philip II., of Spain, 348. 
Philippicus, attempts to reverse the 

Sixth General Council, 559. 
Philippopolis, Council of, 420. 
Philo, the Jew, 19, 194. 
Philosopher's cloak, 204. 
Philosophoumena, 190. 
Philostorgius, " that liar," 374, 417. 
Philumena, 156. 
Phocas, 554. 
Photinians, 460. 



Index. 



589 



Photinus, deposed, 421. 

heretical, 448. 
Phrygian ecstasy, 162, 177. 
Phthartolatrce, 547. 
Pictures foihidden in churches, 331. 
Pierius, 205, 291. 
Pilate, deposed, 15. 

forged " Acts " of, 349. 
Pillar-saints, 479, 533. 
Pinytus, Bishop of the Gnossians, 

306. 
Pionius, martyr, 247. 
Pistus, 389. 
Places of prayer, 95. 
Plague, The, 250. 

panic among the Heathen, 250, 

251- 

courage of the Christians, 251. 

evil overcome with good, 251. 
Pleroma, 86, 149. 
Pliny the younger, 103, 314. 
Plotinus, 141, 142, 194, 201, 3T3. 
Point of view, Heathen, 268. 

Christian, 269. 
Politics, untouched, 96. 
Polycarp, S., 102, 117, 119. 

style and character, 120. 

Theodrome, 120. 

described by Irenseus, 120. 

visits Rome, 120. 

called for by the mob, 122. 

his Martyrdom, 123-125. 
Polycronius, heretic monk, 558. 

fails to work a miracle, 558. 
Pontius, deacon, 224. 
Tontus, invasion of the Goths, 305. 
Portraits of Christ and the Apostles, 

Porphyry, 141, 142, 313. 
Potamisena, 200, 201. 
Potamon, of Heraclea, 384. 
Pothinus, 117, 125. 



Pothinus, cry for his blood, 126. 

martyred, 129. 
Potiorem Principalitatem, 255. 
Power of Christianity, 335. 
Praxeas, 169. 

Precedence of Bishops, 75. 
Presbyter-bishops, 64. 
Presbyteresses, 65. 
Presbyters or Elders, 14, 55. 
Prescription, 175. 
Priesthood of the Laity, 166. 
Primates, rule of, in Africa, 224. 
Priscilla, 164. 
Priscillianists, 450. 

pleaded for by S. Martin, 487. 

condemned for their evil deeds, 

487. 
Privatus, 222. 
Proclus, of Cyzicum, 509. 

preaches on the Theotokos, 513. 
Procopius, public and secret History, 

550- 

Proculus, 168, 220. 

Prodigies and omens, 37, 43. 

Progress of the Gospel, 309, 310. 
problem unprecedented, 310. 

Pro mora finis, prayer, 213, 246. 

Proterius, Bishop of Alexandria, mur- 
dered, 542. 

Providence in History, 362. 

Pseudos, 198. 

Pulcheria, educates Theodosius II., 

533- 
lavish outlay, 534. 

love of relics, 535. 

marries Marcian, 535. 

Council of Chalcedon called, 

535- 

Pulpit eloquence unknown for three 

centuries at Rome, 272. 
Purgatory, 160. 
Puritans, 162, 241. 



59Q 



Index. 



Quacks, troops of, Julian, 435. 
Quadratus, 102. 

Apology for the Christians, 114. 
Quartodecimanism, 285, 390. 
Quinisext Council (see Trutto). 
Quintus, volunteer martyr, and coward. 
121. 



Rack, number of holes in, 254. 

Rationalist reaction, 168, 169. 

Ravenna, separated from Rome, 554. 

Rebaptism by the Novatians, 243, 288. 
by the Catholics, 289. 

" Reason " and Private Judgment, 382. 

Rejoicings at the triumph of Christian- 
ity, 357, 358. 

Relic worship, 535. 

Representation of the whole Church, 
321. 

Reservation, eucharistical, 327. 

Revivalism, 163. 

Rites, 92. 

little new needed, 92. 

Riots, exaggeration of number slain, 

544, 545- 
Rod of Moses, 314. 
Rogatian, 232. 

Rome, Christians there at an early date, 
18. 
point of confluence of traditions, 

174. 
a steady balance, 175. 
Auctoritas prcesto, 211, 255. 
origin and growth of Roman 

Church, 254-278. 
missionary zeal of, 255. 
the resort of Heretics, 256. 
Matrix Religionis, 256. 
statistics of, in third centiuy, 267. 
social position then, 267. 
pulpit eloquence unknown, 272. 



Rome, charities abundant, 272, 273. 

the standard-bearer of Orthodoxy 
277. 

Donatist succession in Rome, 277 

the See of S. Peter, 277. 

early Synod of, with only 14 Bish- 
ops, 307. 

an hundred sees, 307. 

the Primacy, as stated by Dollin- 
ger, 322. 

true order of events inverted by 
Roman theory, 322. 

submits to the Cross, 356. 

refuge of Nicene exiles, 419. 

luxury and wealth of its Bishops, 

452. 

Council at, condemning Nestorius, 

520, 521. 
Cyril to carry out the sentence, 

521. 
" shall have the Primacy," a false 
reading, 541. 
Rothe, on Episcopacy, 61. 
Rule of Faith, 81, 83. 
the Creed, 82, 8^. 



Sabbas, 442. 
Sabellianism, 168. 
Sabellius, 170. 

condemned at Rome, 258. 
Sabinus, of Leon, 264. 
Saccophori, 162. 
Sacraments, 104. 

none in the wilderness, 249. 
Sacra Peregrina, 268. 
Sacrijicati, 236. 

Saint-worship, probable origin of, 398. 
Salaries, the invention of Montanists, 

334- 

Samosata, Paul of, 171. 
Samosatcnians, 284. 



Index. 



591 



Sampsaeans, 45. 
Sanctus, deacon, 128. 
Sapor, 431, 473. 
Saracens, evangelized, 475. 

take their first town, 554. 

take whole Provinces, 555. 

take Jerusalem, 557. 

take large parts of the Empire, 

557- 

stopped by the Greek Fire, 557. 
Sarah and Hagar, 197. 
Sardica, Council of, 419, 420. 

splits between East and West, 420. 

Athanasius acquitted, 420. 

canon of, about appeals, 492, 493 
Sarmats, a376. 
Sasima, 458. 

Saturninus, Gnostic, 155. 
Saturninus, Martyr, 216. 
Saturus, Martyr, 216. 
Saul, of Tarsus, 19. 

his ordination, 20. 
Schaff, on Episcopacy, 61, 73, 74. 

on S. Ignatius, 109. 

on Gnosticism, 152. 
Schism, in Corinth, 88. 

in Antioch, 403. 

between East and West, 35 years, 

548. 
Schools, three chief, of Theology, 174. 

the Age of, 299. 
Scillitan martyrs, 211-217. 
Scriptures, the Holy, destroyed in the 

Tenth Persecution, 341. 
Sects, in Africa, 222, 223. 
Arian, 416, 427. 
quarrelling among themselves, 

427. 
Semiarian, 416, 427. 
Homoiousiott, 416, 447. 
Secundus, 377, 389. 
Seleucia, Council of, 427, 429. 



Self-destruction of Christians, 286. 
Senate, The, becoming Christian, 504. 
Senior es populi, 23 1 . 
Senses, to be sealed, 157. 
Sensuous bias, 158. 

Sepedon, two-headed hairy serpent, 90. 
Sepulchre, Holy, Church of the, 400. 
Septuagint, The, 184. 
Serapeum, The, rats, 504. 
Serapion, of Alexandria, 291. 
Serapion, monk, 478. 
Serenus Granianus, letter of, 115. 
'ergius, of Constantinople, advises the 

edict of Heraclius, 555. 
Sergius III., of Rome, rejects Trullau 

canons, 559. 
Servant form of the Gospel, 310. 
Sethites, 154. 
Seven Angels, 72. 

Sleepers of Ephesus, 247. 
Seventy, The, 28, 29, 62. 
Severians, 162. 
Severianus, 353. 
Severus, Alexander, 145, 222. 
Severus, Caesar, slain, 346. 
Severus, Septimius, 144. 
Sibylline books, 352. 
Sicily, Council in, 447. 
Sick, Communion of the, 326, 327. 
Sige, 87, 108, 149. 
Signs in the Church, the State, the 

world, 245. 
and wonders, 315. 
Silas, or Silvanus, 31. 
Silence of Jesus, The, 109. 
Simon, S., Apostle, 34. 
Simon Magus, 14, 87. 
Sin after Baptism, 238. 
Sine Charta et Atramento, 21 1. 
Siricius, Bishop of Rome, 277, 472. 
wrote the first genuine DecretaL 

472. 



592 



Index. 



Sirmium, Council of, 415, 421. 

Sisters of the Clergy, 227. 

Sixtus, martyred in the Catacombs, 

264. 
Sketis, 478. 

Slanders, heathen, 268, 329. 
Slaves, cruel treatment of, 332, ^ZZ- 

manumission not encouraged, 1^ 
Sobriety of Christians, 269. 
Social problems untouched, 96. 
Societies, secret, 103. 
Society, unhealthy state of, 477. 
Socrates, used the language of the peo 

pie, 4. 
Socrates, Historian, threefold bias 

against Cyril, 514,515. 
Sodomites, 155. 
Sophia, 154. 
Sophronius, of Jerusalem, only orthodox 

patriarch, 556. 
Sotades, 379. 
Sotas, 177. 
Spain, 307. 

tinctured with Novatianism, 307. 
Spirit, Operation of the, 178. 
Spirits, tried, 179. 
S. P. O. R., 443- 
Spurious writings, 160. 
Spyridion, 384. 
Statistics and rhetoric, 309. 
Stephen, S., stoned, 14. 
Stephen, Bishop of Rome, 254, 261. 

martyred in the catacombs, 264. 
Stoic ideal, 116. 
Strauss, typical character of the mira 

cles of Christ, 3. 
Stromata, 196. 
Subintroductcz, 227, 233. 

forbidden, 391. 
Subordination, 168, 172, 175. 
Sylvester, of Rome, ^8^. 

spurious correspondence, 393. 



Symbols, numerous, 8^. 

Christian, 331. 
Symeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, 43, 44. 
102. 

martyred, 106. 
Symeon, Stylites, 533. 

writes against Timothy the Cat, 

542. 
Symmachus, 504. 
Syncretistic Schools, 313. 
Synods, 179, 180. 

a united witness, 180. 

all present, Bishops, Presbyters, 
Deacons, People, 180. 

Apostolic, 181. 

against Synods, 181. 

Provincial, 321. 

representative of the whole 
Church, 321. 
Synodal Epistle, 393. 
Syrian Gnostics, 155. 
Syrianus, duke, 424. 
Systole, 170. 



Tabenna, 478. 

Tatian, 139, 140, 156, 162. 

Tatianites, 162. 

Taurobolia, 434. 

Temple, in Jerusalem, attempt to re« 

build, 440, 441. ' 
Terminus, retreating, 496. 

his festival observed, 341. 
Tertullian, 141, 211. 

on the good Emperors, 144. 

on Tradition, 218. 

his life and labors, 218-222. 

on demoniacal possession, 317. 

on Discipline, 318. 

on the Christian Family, 324. 

on military service, 330. 

on non-resistance, 336. 






Index, 



593 



Tertullian, his minor errors, 221, 222. 
Tertullianists, restored to the Church, 

220. 
Thalassius, of Caesarea, at " Robber 

Council," 531. 
Theandric Operation, 556. 
Theban Legion, 340. 
Thecla, 59. 
Themison, 177. 

Theoctistus, of Caesarea, 203, 304. 
Theodochos, 512. 
Theodora, Empress, 551. 

head of the Opposition, 551. 

an irreproachable wife, 551. 
Theodoret, of Cyrus, 525. 

tries to explain at Chalcedon, 

540. 

anathematizes Nestorius, 540. 
Theodorus of Mopsuestia, 529. 
Theodosius, restores the Churches to 
the Orthodox, 462. 

his orthodoxy and zeal, 463. 

taught, by disrespect to his son, 

463- 

convokes Council of Constanti- 
nople, 464. 

conference of Sects, 471. 

Novatians and Catholics approved, 
all others condemned, 471, 472. 

establishes " Church and State," 
489-493. 

at Milan, 501. 

is sent out of the chancel, 501. 

case of a Synagogue, 501. 

massacre at Thessalonica, 502. 

his penance, and restoration, 503, 

5°4- 

severity against Pagans, 504. 
Divine honors voted to him after 
death, 504. 
Theodosius II., fosters both Heresies, 
532. 



Theodosius II., declines to call a new 
Council, 532. 

character of his reign, 533. 

Pulcheria, 533. 

monachism, luxuriant, 533. 

Eudocia's pilgrimage, 534. 

his death, 535. 
Theodosius, a Bishop, returns raging 

from Chalcedon, 545. 
Theodotus, 168, 169. 
Theognis, of Nicaea, 389, 402. 
Theognostus, 205, 291. 
Theonas, 291, 377, 389. 
Theonas, monk, 478. 
Theopaschites, 547. 
Theopemptus, 515. 
Theophilus, Apologist, 140, 278. 
Theophilus, the Goth, 383, 474. 
Theophilus, of Alexandria, 514. 
Theophoros, 512. 
Theotecnus, of Caesarea, 304. 
Theotokos, 510-513, 522, 527. 
Therapeutce, 19, 97, 293. 
Thibutis, 43. 

Thiersch, on Episcopacy, 61, 72, 80. 
Thomas, S., Apostle, ^, 301. 

Apostle of the East, 528. 
Three hundred and eighteen, The, 383^ 
Thundering Legion, 143. 
Tkurijicati, 236. 
Tiberius, 554. 
Timothy, S., 21, 30, 31. 
Timothy, the Cat, 542. 
Titus, 31. 

Tonsure, and Maximus, 466. 
Tortures of martyrs, 128, 129. 

the punishments of slaves, 332, 

333- 

Tradition, oral, Apostolic, 81, 82. 

soon corrupted, 81. 
appealed to, 174, 218. 
inveighed against, 218. 



594 



Index. 



Traditores, 274. 

Trajan, persecutes, 103-110. 

relents, 1 05. 
Translations of Bishops, etc., forbidden, 

391- 
Transubstantiation, denied, 522. 
Triad, 170. 
Trias, 140, 278. 
Trine immersion, 449. 
Trisagion, with Antiochean addition, 

549, 550- 
Tritheism, 168. 
Triillo, Council in, 558. 
in Canons, 558. 
Truth, and error, 312. 

the new ordeal of, 381. 

real zeal for, 532. 
Twelve foundations, 28. 
Tyana, Council at, 447. 
Types of doctrine, S. John, S. Paul, S. 
Peter, 78. 

S. James, 79. 
Typus, The, of Constans II., 556. 

rejected at Rome, 556. 
Tyre, splendid church, 304, 350. 

Origen dies there, 304. 



Ulfilas, Bishop of the Goths, 474. 
Unction, 94. 

Unity, Catholic, 320-324. 
Ursacius, 421, 424. 



Valens, Arian, 421, 424. 
Valens, Emperor, 443. 

persecutes cruelly, 447, 448. 

eighty priests burned at sea, 448. 

resisted by S. Basil, 457. 

his offering refused at the Altar, 

457- 
dies, 460. 



Valentinian I., Emperor, 443. 

dies suddenly, 460. 
Valentinian II., Emperor, 460. 
Valentinus, 154. 
Valeria, daughter of Diocletian, 338, 

343> 347- 
outraged and slain by Maximin, 

353- 

Valerian, persecutor, flayed alive by 

Persians, 265. 
Veils, question of, 218. 
Venantius and Celer, consulship, 545. 
Venus, temple of, 400. 
Vernacular tongue, not commonly used 

by the Clergy in the Provinces, 

2 95- 

Veronicianus, Secretary, 537. 
Vesta Meretricum, 210. 
Vettius Epagathus, Martyr, 127. 
Via media, 175. 

Victor, of Rome, favors Montanism, 
167. 
excommunicates the Asiatics, 188, 
256. 
Victory, goddess of, 504. 
Vigilius, Bishop of Rome, 553. 

decides both ways about the Three 

Chapters, 553. 
acknowledges the instigation of 

the Devil, 553. 
accepts the Fifth General Council 
at last, 553. 
Vigils in cemeteries, 328. 
Vincent of Lerins, 221. 
Vincentius, legate, 383. 
Vincentius, Bishop of Aries, 422. 
Vindelicia, 308. 
Virgins, 60. 

outrages upon them, 213. 
their bad conduct in Africa, 225. 
they should marry, rather than 
give scandal, 233, 234. 






Index, 



595 



Virtues, Christian, not popular among|World, The Roman, human, not dia- 
the Heathen, 330. bolic, 332. 



public, not popular among Chris 
tians, 330. 
Vision of Constantine, 355, 356. 
Visions, fondness for, 217. 

abundant, 234, 244. 
Vitalian, bloody rebellion, 550. 
Vitus, legate, 383. 



Wars and famines, 252. 
Watchers, 479. 

take part with Rome, 549. 
Widows, 65, 332. 

Witness, threefold, Rome, Alexandria, 
Antioch, 175. 

unto blood, 314. 
Women, Holy, 57. 
Word, The, Alpha and Omega of 

Church History, 299. 
World, The Roman, 300. 

overstocked with population, 325. 



Worship, Public, 94. 

as described by Pliny, 104. 



Xystus, 272. 



York, 347. 



Zeno, Emperor, issues Henoticon, 548. 

ignores Chalcedon and Leo's 
Tome, 548. 
Zenobia, 280, 284. 
Zephyrinus, 169, 190, 226. 

sketch of his Episcopate, 257, 258 
Zoroaster, 157. 
Zosimus, on the heathen tyrants, 358. 

on the perfidy of Constantine, 361 

his History a lampoon, 364. 
Zoticus, of Comana, 177. 



Mfl 



